Here, the forest is altered and managed, often quite substantially. The canopy is thinned once to several times a year to allow more light to reach the coffee and increase yields. Trees with open, wide-spreading canopies are favored since fewer trees are needed to provide the preferred amount of shade. Undergrowth, competing shrubs, and emerging seedlings of other plants are removed to make harvesting easier and to make room for more coffee.
Most of Semi-forest Coffee in Bench Maji is Garden Coffee. Farmers in the Bench Maji region effectively live under a canopy of fruit trees. Therefore, a coffee called “Garden Coffee” in Bench Maji may otherwise be known as “Forest Coffee”. Coffee plants are transplanted to gardens around farmers’ homes. These plants might come from a wild forest nearby.
Coffee is typically inter-planted with other crops and fruit trees to ensure a diversified income and food security. Farmers also cultivate spices such as Ginger and Turmeric. These marry well with coffee crops as their harvest time is prior to coffee’s; harvesting the spices doubles as removal of undergrowth and enables the next coffee harvest.
The yield of semi forest coffee or garden coffee varies greatly depending on the extent of farmers’ management. Most commonly farmers produce less than 400 kg per ha per year.
