A study case on coffee (Coffea arabica): Limu Coffe - IRD

kilometer, which is less than the zone average of 150.6. The 1994 national census gave that
the five largest ethnic groups reported in the district were the Oromo (80.94%), the Amhara
(11.33%), the Kullo (1.61%), the Kafficho (1.02%), and the Tigray (1.01%); all other ethnic
groups made up 4.09% of the population. Oromic was spoken as a first language by 81.07%,
14.81% spoke Amharic, 0.92% spoke Kullo, and 0.85% spoke Tigrigna; the remaining 2.35%
spoke all other primary languages reported. The majority of the inhabitants were Muslims,
with 70.03% of the population having reported they practiced that belief, while 28.31% of the
population said they professed Ethiopian orthodox christianity (monophysism), and 9.72%
were protestant (Central Statistic Authority, 2005).
4) Production
4.1) Coffee production systems: the coffee space
In their article “From local food to localized food”, G. Holt and V. Amilien (2007)
emphasize differences between place and space dimensions of the term “local food”, with “a
place aspect that often underlines the historical, cultural and social features, while physical
space obviously focuses on the typicality of the products from this special place.” In order to
define the Limu coffee place, it is indispensable to describe the production spaces it involves.
These spaces are a stone of the Limu coffee place building. What are these systems of coffee
production?
Local agronomists, national and regional researchers, administrative bureaus, peasants,
even foreign journalists or agricultural development organizations are thrown into a semantic
struggle concerning the different spaces in which coffee gets produced. As a sample, we can
mention: forest coffee, wild coffee, small-holder coffee, garden coffee, semi-domesticated
forest coffee, semi-forest coffee, modern coffee plantation, home garden coffee. Some of these
terms mean the same spaces, and often reflect confusion in words and concepts. We can quote
as the best example wild coffees and forest coffees, considered as synonyms, which are in fact
semi-forest coffees that we better name agro-forest coffees. What is disturbing our semantic
framework is the degree of anthropisation met by the coffee environment. A recurrent error
remains on the use of terms as wild or forest coffees associating the vision of undiscovered
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