ETHIOPIA: Ethiopian coffee farmers ponder replacing their crop with narcotic Khat to bolster their incomes

Farmers in Ethiopia produce some of the world's finest coffee but many of them live in poverty. Some of them are considering abandoning their coffee for the lucrative narcotic Khat even as a conference for the continent's top coffee producers draws to a close in Addis Ababa. According to local legend, Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. Today, Hagos Kebede is just one of thousands of farmers in East Africa that produce the distinctive Arabica beans that are in demand all over the globe. The price of a cup of coffee might be steadily rising in cafés around the world. But they are far from Kebede's 1-hectare farm in Ethiopia's Yirga Chaffe region, and the 42-year old is not a happy man. "Often when people here pick coffee, they pick both the red and the green berries and when they sell it, the price paid is low. This is because the quality is not good. The people here are not educated enough to realize this." But Kebede's worries run much deeper than his inattentive pickers. His profit margins are so low that he's considering throwing in the towel altogether in order to better provide for his 8 children. "With the amount of work that one has to do, it is even better to plant Khat - this is because Khat can be harvested 6 or more times a year while you can only harvest coffee once. Khat produces much more money," Kebede added. Khat is a stimulating drug; chewing it keeps you awake and produces a mild high. From the Arab peninsula down to East Africa, taking khat is a daily ritual, especially in Muslim communities. The crop sells well in the region and unlike coffee, it requires little care. Many of Kebede's fellow farmers are also considering replacing their coffee with crops like Khat that will bring in greater profits. Some of the blame can be assigned to falling international prices and unfair trade - where retailers in West charge their customers many times over what they pay farmers in the developing world. "We can see discrimination between the farmers and the traders. Traders who purchase coffee from farmers are getting more profit per kilogramme than the farmers who produce coffee per hectare. The livelihood of the trader is very high but the farmers is still going down," said Kindyhun Mamo, the Yirga Chaffe Coffee Union chairperson. Not too far away, the continent's top coffee producers are rounding up week-long meetings in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. Most of them have supported Ethiopia's plans to trademark its coffee. They believe the move will ensure greater profits for farmers whose beans are sold to companies like U.S. giant Starbucks. "We are committed to respectfully engaging the Ethiopian government and to help build and grow the East Africa coffee industry," said Dub Hay, Starbucks senior vice president. Hagos Kebede didn't attend the conference in Addis Ababa, and even if he had, it may be too little, too late to change the minds of the farmers of Kirga Chaffe.

ITN Source | February 16, 2007

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