A study was conducted to examine the major shocks and their impact on coffeernproduction and the livelihood of smallholder coffee farmers in five major coffeerngrowing zones of Ethiopia, namely, Sidamo, Jimma, Illubabor, Wolayta and WestrnHararghe.rnAfter pooling the available data set using the error component model, the pooled OLSrnand fixed effects regression methods were used to analyze the effects of shocks onrncoffee production and supply response variation across the study areas.rnIt was found that a combination of shocks including drought, pests and coffeerndiseases, drastic fall in world coffee price and health problems have serious effects onrncoffee yield and household income. Households living in different zones of therncountry have different supply responses because of the socio-economic and agroecological differences.rnIn the face of the severe effects of shocks, farmers have adopted a range of riskrnmanagement strategies such as intercropping, depleting assets, borrowing,rnmembership to a social support system and production/marketing unions. However,rnunder the prevailing production technology and farming systems, the strategiesrnemployed by farmers are not adequate enough to cope with the effects of the recurringrnshocks.rnPolicy implication of the study is that one-size-fits-all policy packages and blanketrnrecommendations cannot solve the problems of coffee farmers. Therefore, under therncurrent dynamic market scenario, the success of the Ethiopian coffee sub-sector highlyrndepends on targeted support to reduce the impacts of shocks and to build the capacityrnof indigenous institutions. Interventions need to be disaggregated by agro-ecologicalrnzones and socio-economic settings.