Dilla University (DU) is located in Gedeo zone, in the South Ethiopia Regional State (SERS), at potential coffee growing belts in the Southern part of the country. The university shares borders with the Sidama and Oromia regions, where the popular brands ‘Yirgachafe coffee’, Sidama, Amaro, and Guji specialty coffee are produced.

Considering the potential of the area and the challenge of the Ethiopian coffee industry, DU has recently given considerable attention to coffee research and training endeavors to improve the current low production and poor coffee quality management through research and capacity-building activities. Find out More ...

The Gedeo Cultural Landscape lies along the eastern edge of the Main Ethiopian Rift, on the steep escarpments of the Ethiopian highlands. An area of agroforestry, it utilizes multilayer cultivation with large trees sheltering indigenous enset, the main food crop, under which grow coffee and other shrubs. The area is densely populated by the Gedeo people whose traditional knowledge support local forest management. Within the cultivated mountain slopes are sacred forests traditionally used by local communities for rituals associated with the Gedeo religion, and along the mountain ridges are dense clusters of megalithic monuments, which came to be revered by the Gedeo and cared for by their elders. Find out More ...