COFFEE: The Driver of Economic Development and Socio-Cultural Integration in Ethiopia

Abstract

Coffee is one of the most important agriculture commodities in the world. Ethiopia had been the origin of coffee, because coffee plant was initially found and cultivated in the Kafa province, colonized the world with its natural significance. Globally, coffee plays a significant economic role and serves as a major source of foreign earnings in many producing countries. The importance of coffee is embedded within the growing culture of attraction to the socio-economic significance intrinsic to it. Despite the wild perceptions many agree that coffee has less support to its homeland opposite to its global scenario. Most International reports confirms that the performance of coffee sector in home land has got insignificant, but with better attributes for prosperity with undiscovered reasons. Therefore, this paper aimed to see the role of coffee as driver of economic development and socio-cultural integration in Ethiopia. Archival documents were collected from different national and international reports, research findings and other relevant statistics were used to triangulate and cover the gaps. For collected data mixed data analysis methods were employed, where by after detail description of the data conclusions were made and targeted recommendations were forwarded as well. The study confirmed that even though it was/is economically the leading agricultural commodity, due to low production and productivity   in relation to traditional agricultural practice, coffee didn’t boosted the national economy of the country as it does in other producing countries. Ironic to this, coffee nationally come up with livelihood base of coffee dependent peoples, served as media of local communication and socio-cultural integration, the only commodity commonly consumed and gathered in ceremony throughout the country in particular and in the spoken by the same sound (word) in the world. Therefore, in order to balance the socio-cultural value of coffee at hand with the economic one all effort on harnessing the prevailing potential of increased production and quality of coffee, working in the value chain – winning uniqueness through branding as land of origin and working on institutional competency and quality delivery was highly recommended. Keywords: Coffee; Economic Development, Socio-cultural Integration; Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/61-01 Publication date: September 30 th 2020