This study was conducted with objective to determine extent of phenotypic diversity in Arabica coffee accessions from Eastern Ethiopia. Treatments consisted of 49 coffee accessions. The accessions were field planted at Mechara Agricultural Research Center in July, 2005 using simple lattice design with two replications. Total of 15 quantitative characters were recorded using standard coffee descriptors. The collected data were subjected to SAS software for Analysis of variance. Cluster analysis was also done. Mean squares due to coffee accessions were highly significant (p<1%) for all quantitative characters studied except for number of internodes of main stem and average length of primary branch, indicating the presence of remarkable phenotypic variation among the coffee accessions studied. For stem characters, plant height varied from 94.00 to 165.40 cm; number of internodes of main stem ranged from 17.90 to 24.80 cm; internode length of main stem varied from 5.30 to 8.25 cm; diameter of main stem from 3.40 to 5.35 cm. For branch characters, number of primary branches ranged from 30.20 to 43.10; length of primary branch from 43.10 to 105.10 cm; numbers of internodes of primary branch 14 to 26.70; internode length of primary branch was from 3.20 to 5.73 cm; numbers of secondary branch varied from 41.10 to 133.20. For leaf characters, leaf length varied from 9.20 cm to 18.43 cm and with mean of 13.40 cm. Leaf width from 3.49 to 8.77 cm with mean vale of 6.24 cm. Average leaf area of all accessions was 57.96 with variation from 24.63 to 105.45 cm 2 . Weight of hundred beans ranged from 11 g for five accessions (H-25/04, H-40/04, H-41/04 and H-618/ 98) to 16.5 for H03/04 with mean value of 13.53 g. Cluster analysis grouped the coffee accessions into five groups of different sizes, ranging from one entry in cluster IV and V to 34 in cluster I. Inter-cluster distances were highly significant (p=0.01) except between cluster I and II, indicating presence of considerable phenotypic diversity in coffee accessions from eastern Ethiopia. It is advisable to maintain and evaluate the coffee genotypes for disease resistance, moisture stress tolerance, yield and cup quality in future studies.

Arabica Coffee is an important export commodity for Ethiopia, contributing 25 to 30 % of the country’s total foreign exchange earnings. Moisture stress is one of the major constraints of coffee production in Hararge, Eastern Ethiopia. Moisture stress affects the growth, yield and quality of coffee. Local coffee landraces are source of desirable traits including moisture stress tolerance. Accordingly, this study was conducted to evaluate Hararge coffee landraces for moisture stress tolerance. Treatments consisted of 200 coffee landraces (178 from seven districts of east Hararge Zone and 22 from two districts of west Hararge Zone). The coffee landraces were field planted in July 2005 at Mechara Agricultural Research Center using augmented design with six trees per plot or accessions. Moisture stress tolerance was recorded from three randomly selected coffee trees per plot, three times a day (in the morning, noon and night) from January 05 to 25, 2014.  The stress tolerance was determined using 1-5 scale by visual scoring (1- all leaves green and turgid, 2- most leaves still turgid but younger leaves show leaf folding; 3- all leaves wilt or fold, 4- Leaves partially turning pales, and partly shed showing severe wilting and 5-leaves completely turning brown and dry, mostly dropping). The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result of this study revealed that the coffee landraces varied in their level of tolerance to moisture stress. The 200 coffee landraces were grouped into seven clusters based on their level of tolerance to moisture stress. Nine coffee landraces (4.5%) were highly tolerant to moisture stress, 25 (12.5%) were tolerant, and 36 (18%) were moderately tolerant.  On the other hand, 60 coffee landraces (30%) were less tolerant; while 57 (28.5%), 11(5.5%) and 2 (1%) were moderately sensitive, sensitive and highly sensitive to moisture stress, in that order.  There was variation in coffee landraces for moisture stress tolerance both between and within areas of the collection. Hence, it is advisable to maintain and use promising coffee landraces in coffee breeding. Screening of the landraces under controlled conditions like green house and studying of mechanisms of moisture stress is also the way forward.