Cultivation

Aster uses agroforestry techniques to produce both food and cash crops. Agroforestry also creates the ideal shaded microclimate for his coffee. Coffee is intercropped with food and other cash crops using agroforestry techniques. Aster’s farm is organic by default. He upkeeps his farm with periodic mulching, composting and pruning to boost yields. In Ethiopia, the genetic diversity of landrace coffee trees means that we find a diversity of flavor, even between (or within) farms with similar growing conditions and processing. The Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) is responsible for developing many of the varieties that flourish across Ethiopia today. Landraces are plant varieties that have evolved over generations of selective breeding to be best suited to their local conditions. There are at least 130 widely cultivated regional or local landraces.