ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agroecology and Ecosystem Services
This article is part of the Research TopicAgroecological Approaches for Enhancing Plant Growth and Yield in a Time of Global Change.View all articles
Enhancing Coffee Productivity and Disease Resilience through Ecological Farming: Evidence from Smallholder Systems in Kenya
Provisionally accepted
- 1Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 2Goodneighbors International Kenya, Narobi, Kenya
- 3Goodneighbors International Kenya, Embu, Kenya
- 4Goodneighbors Global impact, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 5Kongju National University, Gongju-si, Republic of Korea
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Climate variability, soil degradation, and increasing pest and disease pressure threaten the sustainability of Arabica coffee production in East Africa. Eco-friendly farming practices—such as no-tillage, organic mulching, composting, and the use of Indigenous Microorganisms (IMOs)—are increasingly promoted as climate-adaptive alternatives to conventional systems. In this study, we define eco-friendly farming as a project-standardized combination of these practices together with field-made microbial inputs, yet empirical evidence on their effectiveness in African smallholder contexts remains limited. This study evaluates the agronomic and plant-health impacts of eco-friendly coffee farming among 34 purposively selected smallholder farmers from 100 trainees — chosen based on early adoption and availability of complete yield records—in Embu County, Kenya. A paired-plot design compared ecological and conventional management using per-tree yield and the incidence of Coffee Berry Disease (CBD) and Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR). Eco-friendly management significantly increased coffee yield during the 2024/2025 main harvest, with farmers gaining an average of 1.12 kg per tree (p<0.001). Disease suppression was substantial: CBD incidence was reduced by 89% and CLR by 93% in 2024, supported by very large effect sizes (CBD d = –2.24; CLR d = –2.10). Although disease pressure decreased markedly in 2025, eco-friendly plots maintained lower CBD levels and similar CLR levels relative to conventional plots. Early adopters exhibited greater yield gains, indicating cumulative benefits as soil biological processes stabilize. Input costs were comparable between the two systems, suggesting that productivity and plant-health improvements were achieved without increasing production expenses. Because the analysis is based on a single extended production cycle (January 2024–September 2025), further multi-season monitoring is needed to evaluate ecological stability and economic sustainability across variable climatic conditions.
Keywords: eco-friendly farming, sustainable agriculture, Coffee production, Kenya, agroecology, Microbial Diversity, climate-resilient agriculture
Received: 24 Oct 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lee, Murage, Mutwoki, Lee, Lee and Kim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dong Sub Kim
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