Abstract:
Because of population pressure for arable lands in most of coffee growing areas in
Ethiopia, coffee cultivation has spread towards marginal areas where water shortage and
high temperature constitute significant reduction in coffee yield. Also, in most cases, there
is shortage of water resources for irrigation during prolonged dry spells, which affects the
growth and development of plants under different forms during the phonological phases
of the coffee crop (Abayneh M. and Masresha F., 2014). The critical soil moisture level
for coffee at its maturity level is 0.52 (Bruno etal, 2015) and according to (FAO, 2002)
the allowable manageable depletion soil moisture level for coffee is 0.40.
Developing drought tolerant coffee genotypes is better option in mitigating climate
change impacts on coffee growing areas in Ethiopia. From the promising coffee
genotypes in Southern Ethiopia, fourteen cultivars have been tested for their drought
tolerance potential.
Agronomic measures against drought control, such as shading, irrigation, high density
planting and use of tolerant genotypes that are adapted to climatic fluctuations are
alternative solutions against drought in coffee cultivation. Therefore, this study was
conducted from 2011 to 2015 to screen drought tolerant Sidamo coffee genotypes under
both rain-shelter and field conditions.
