The Economic Values of Coffea Arabica Biodiversity in Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia possesses the most important and diversified genepool of Coffea arabica in wild populations, traditional landraces and cultivated varieties. The availability of high genetic diversity is fundamental for any crop improvement program for use by the plant breeders. This study presents economic valuation of Coffea arabica in terms of pest and disease resistance, increased productivity /yield, drought tolerance or climate change resilience, low caffeine content and higher cup quality.

The wild Coffea arabica embedded in the natural forest has a wide range of benefits, including cultivated coffee genetic enhancement, provision of ecological services as well as an intrinsic value. This economic assessment estimated the values of Coffea arabica biodiversity in term of coffee genetic enhancement for increased yield, increased pest and disease resistance, low caffeine, high cup quality, drought and climate change resilience, and GHG reduction using indirect market-based of revealed preference techniques.

Our assessment revealed enormous potential of Ethiopia’s Arabica coffee biodiversity to improve and sustainably produce coffee globally and in the country. If Ethiopia exploits its coffee genetic resources potential for coffee production in the country, it gets an additional benefit of USD 2.37-5.84 billion per year. Besides, if coffee producing countries use the genetic resources in Ethiopia to solve their coffee production problems, there is a potential economic benefit of USD7.6-8.1 billion per year. If users of these genetic resources are willing to pay 5% of their gain in economic benefit from the accessed Ethiopian coffee genetic resources to Ethiopia, the country can get additional income of about USD380-403 million per year.