Early Growth Response of Hararghe Coffee Selections to Soil Moisture Deficit at Seedling Stage at Mechara, Eastern Ethiopia

Drought is among the major factors that adversely affect coffee production in most parts of Ethiopia. Hararghe coffee is despite its economic importance in the world market and in the national economy of the country; its productivity is very low primarily because of periodic soil moisture deficit stresses and many other factors. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to screen and evaluate Hararghe coffee genotypes for drought tolerant in response to soil moisture stresses. A total of nineteen coffee genotypes; fourteen promising coffee selections and five released varieties were evaluated for morphological and physiological drought stress traits using Completely Randomized Design with three replications. The experiment was conducted at Mechara Agricultural Research Center in a rain shelter. Eight pairs of true leaf coffee seedlings were subjected to two watering regimes (water-stress by withholding irrigation and well-watered control). The analysis of variance results revealed significant variation among coffee genotypes for water deficit stress. Therefore, based on preliminary observations and visual assessments of recovery plants, the genotypes were grouped into three categories of drought tolerance; sensitive, moderately sensitive and relatively tolerant. However, genotypes from each category should also be tested for their morphological, physiological and biochemical responses to drought in order to identify more tolerant types and come up with a recommendation for further selection and breeding works for drier coffee growing areas of the country.