Homestead coffee production in Southern Ethiopia: A promising approach to enhance household asset building

Abstract

Ethiopia is one of the largest coffee producers, and the status of coffee production and people's resource endowment are inextricably linked. However, coffee production and its impact on family assets have yet to be fully studied. This study explores the relationship between households' livelihood asset building and their coffee production status in southern Ethiopia, Wolaita zone. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 250 households. Employing the data produced from surveys, a composite household livelihood asset index incorporating three components (household ownership, access to agricultural resource endowments, and the empowerment of human capital) was developed. And then, the effect of asset dimensions on coffee production status on household asset building was calculated using step-wise regression. The multivariate analysis showed a significant role of home garden coffee
production on household livelihood asset building in the context of the mixed farming systems of the study area. The two (access to agricultural resource endowments and the empowerment of human capital) out of the three assets latent dimensions were found to be significantly predicted by the farm’s coffee production status. It was recommended that enhancing the asset capital status of rural farm households merits special attention, including their human capital, independent ownership rights over land and other resources, and participation in social processes.