PLACE DU CAFE DANS LES SYSTEMES DE PRODUCTION DU SUD-OUEST ETHIOPIEN ET IMPACT PREVISIONNEL DES OUTILS DE CERTIFICATION

Samir El Ouaamari (1) , François Verdeaux (2) , Hubert Cochet (3)

1 AgroParisTech
2 Dynamiques socio-environnementales et gouvernance des ressources
3 SADR - Systèmes Agraires et Développement Rural - UP1102

The role of coffee in southwest Ethiopia's production systems and the forecasted impact of certification projects. Southwest Ethiopia, the genetic cradle of Arabica coffee, is characterized by the progressive transformation of its forests, based on an enrichment of the last on coffee plants and on a lightening and speciesbased modification of the tree strata. The gathering and/or production of coffee, which is almost always combined with cereal cultivation with yoke in open fields and hand tool-based gardening in houses nearby within the very complex local production systems, is nowadays promoted as “forest coffee” or “wild coffee”, appellations that are nowadays used in some certification projects. Also, as a part of the current policies of development of this original product and protection of the forested areas, government allocates big forestry concessions to national and foreign investors. The aim of this communication is to analyse the role of coffee within the diversified production systems of southwest Ethiopia, and the possible effects of “forest coffee” certification projects on farmers' practices, income and socioeconomic differentiation evolution. Forestry concessions evolving into more and more of a capitalistic farming model – based on employment of precarious daily workers – this research work also poses the problem of the absence of fairness in this type of development. It also underlines the risks of the certification process cited above, which includes in the same chain value very different ways of producing coffee – both in terms of the production process and the associated social and production relations – and, in that sense, could create some confusion and, at the same time, could deprive the Ethiopian peasantry of a part of its patrimony.

Mots clés: Arabica coffee; forest; Ethiopia; production systems; certification

Domaines: Agriculture, économie et politique

Samir El Ouaamari, François Verdeaux, Hubert Cochet. PLACE DU CAFE DANS LES SYSTEMES DE PRODUCTION DU SUD-OUEST ETHIOPIEN ET IMPACT PREVISIONNEL DES OUTILS DE CERTIFICATION. ISDA 2010, Jun 2010, Montpellier, France. 12 p. ⟨hal-00522573⟩