Smallholder coffee irrigation research in Kenya

Abstract

A field study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of developing irrigation methods for smallholder coffee farms using basins and readily available packaging materials such as polythene bags, bottles and plastic containers, to supply 25 water per tree per month. All treatments, except the polythene bag resulted insignificant yield increases. The best overall treatment (0.5 x 0.5 x 0.2 m basin supplying water to four trees) resulted in 4672 kg clean coffee per ha equivalent to 6.3 kg cherry per tree. The unirrigated control resulted in 1003 kg clean coffee per ha (2.4 kg cherry per tree). The results are discussed. It is concluded that the smallholder yields can be substantially increased by using materials that are readily available in their homes