Abstract:
Coffee is the most important agricultural commodity, which stands second next to oil in terms
of international trading in the global market. Crop genetic resources have an important
potential value in future breeding programs as well, and therefore need to be conserved.
Therefore, the present study was undertaken to assess farmers’ preference, on farm phenotypic
diversity and status of genetic erosion of Hararghe coffee (Coffea arabica L.) in Laga hama
and Awale localities in Kombolcha and Dire Dawa respectively. Data were collected for
similarity/ dissimilarity index, preference index, principal component analysis (PCA), and
genetic erosion, Observational data about farmers’ cultivation, production constraints and
utilization of Hararghe coffee cultivars using interview checklist. The result indicated that five
genotypes were recorded in both localities. The Sorensen’s similarity index was found to be
57%. Even though the localities are close together, they exhibited variations in genotype
distribution. The highest preference index PI (25.60) with preference rank first was recorded
for Fandisha genotype, followed by PI (22.50) and rank 2nd for Muyira genotype, PI (21.03)
and rank 3rd for Khoriso, PI (19.53) rank 4th for Shekhana, and the least PI (11.28) with rank
5
th was recorded for Danga genotype. The principal component (PC) analysis was used to
determine the variation in coffee genotypes and association with their traits. PC1 has got high
positive component loading (0.58) from Fd, followed by Mk (0.36), Fk (0.37) and Dk (0.35)
genotypes indicating that such genotypes have correlated effect. Likewise, PC1 has got high
positive component score from number of secondary branches per tree, SB (0.94) and number
of primary branches per tree, PB (0.30) traits indicating that Fandisha and Muyira genotypes
was distinguished by their high primary and secondary branches. PC2 has got high positive
component loading (0.65) from Sd followed by Fk (0.37) genotypes. Similarly, PC2 has got high
positive component loading from PB (0.76), NPT (0.33), and SD (0.25) traits indicating that
such genotypes have high performance of such traits. PC3 has got high positive score from Mk
(0.41), Dk (0.28), Kd (0.25), Sd (0.26) and Md 90.22). The associated traits with high positive
loading were HBW (0.77), PB (0.49) and IL (0.22) indicating that such genotypes: Muyira,
Danga, Khoriso and Shekhana were among those genotypes with high hundred bean weight
(HBW). The coffee production constraints as suggested by the respondents were lack of
improved variety, replacement by other commercial crops like khat, climatic conditions, and
land scarcity.