EVALUATION OF COFFEE GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY UNDER COFFEE SHADE TREES AT MECHARA ON STATION, WEST HARARGHE ZONE, ETHIOPIA

Coffee production with shade trees is important to improve growth and qualityof coffee, sustain and restore agroecology and nature-based agroforestry prac-tices. The trial was conducted at Mechara Agricultural Research Center (on sta-tion) in DaroLebu District of West Hararghe Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia. The studywas intended to evaluate the inβluence of coffee shade trees on growth perfor-mance, yield and quality of coffee (Coffea arabica L.) under the canopy of Ery-therina absinica, Cordia africana and Acacia sieberiana. The design was Ran-domized complete block design with three replications. The outcome had beenobserved a signiβicant value at (p<0.05) probability level, non- signiβicant valueat (p>0.05) probability level and highly signiβicance value at (p<0.01) probabil-itylevelbetweentreatments. Statisticallysigniβicantandnon-signiβicantdiffer-ences were observed between shaded and unshaded as well as within shadedeffect based on the given parameters. Integration of shade in coffee farmingsystem created creditable promising in producing organic coffee. Shade utilitycould be conβirmed as to be ecologically sustainable, economically viable andsocially acceptable practice. In so doing that, the effect of Erytherina absinica,Cordia africana shade trees illustrated the highest mean value in most parame-ters, while the least one is under the Acacia sieberiana shade tree. So the effectof Erytherina absinica mean observed with the highest value on total bearingplants 60%, thousand seed weight 59% and yield in Quintal per hectare 47.4%greater than the least treatments' mean value based on growth parameters. Onthe other hand, the effect of Erytherina absinica mean observed with the highervalueonaromaticintensity46.4%, aromaticquality87.2%, acidity92.4%, body93.5%, βlavors88.6%andoverallquality88.6%thantheleasttreatments'meanvalue, and also the effect of un-shade mean observed with the higher valueon astringency 68.8% and bitterness 93.5% than the least treatments' meanvalue based on organoleptic parameters. The highest mean value of Erytherinaabsinica observed on total bearing plants 12.1, thousand seed weight 130 gramand yield in Quintal per hectare 5.7 based on growth parameters, while basedon organoleptic parameters, the highest mean value observed under the effect of Erytherina absinica shade tree on aromatic intensity 4.5, aromatic quality3.9, acidity 7.9, body 7.7, βlavors 7.9 and overall quality 7.9. Therefore, basedon the most treatments' parameters, to be the best shade tree was Erythrinaabyssinica followed by cordia africana. Commonly, the dynamic indication ofthe treatment's means difference was indicated between shaded and unshadedrather than within shaded means variation at most treatments' parameters.