Shifting from coffee to khat (Catha edulis) cultivation in eastern Ethiopia provides insights from a farm household analysis

This study investigates the driving factors behind the replacement of coffee with khat in eastern Ethiopia, based on data from 788 randomly selected farm households across four districts in the East and West Hararghe zones. Complementing this quantitative data, 12 focus group discussions and 44 key informant interviews were conducted. The results reveal that 64% of farm households have replaced coffee with khat, with the highest rates found in the Habro district (31.94%), followed by Deder (29.37%), Boke (20.44%), and Meta (18.25%). In contrast, 31.34% of households in Habro, 27.11% in Meta, and 20.78% in both Deder and Boke continued to cultivate coffee. Replacement rates significantly vary by agroecological zone, with the midland area exhibiting the highest rate at 62.7%, compared to 19.44% in the lowland and 17.86% in the highland areas. Food insecurity rates were 80.2% for shifting households and 63.4% for non-shifting households, with the mean farm income of 22.92 and 21.52 thousand in Ethiopian Birr per year for non-shifting and shifting households, respectively. The results of the logit model identified several negatively associated factors with coffee replacement, including the household head’s age, education, on-farm income, cooperative membership, social participation, and agroecology. In contrast, family size, khat farm size, access to market information, and labor cost were positively correlated with the shift. These findings offer essential insights for policymakers and development partners to address the transition from coffee to khat and to promote sustainable coffee farming practices.