Abstract:
Promoting commercialization of agricultural production is a cornerstone of the rural
development strategies of Ethiopia and commercialization of smallholder farming is not yet
adequate enough to enable farmers be profitable. This study was designed to analyze the
current levels of teff commercialization, to analyze the smallholder farmers’ teff
commercialization in Guduru District, Horro Guduru Wollega, Ethiopia. Two-stages
sampling procedure wasfollowed to select 154 teff producer farmers from four randomly
selected kebeles. An interview schedule was used to collect household survey data during the
2016/2017 farming season. The Household Commercialization Index was used to assess the
levels of market participation, Double Hurdle Model was used to identify the key factors that
influence farmers’ teff commercialization and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance was used
to assess the constraints. The results revealed that about 78% of sampled farmers sold teff
during a production year of2016/2017. The model result indicated that education of
household head, family size, land holding size, land allocated to teff, farm output,
participation in off/non-farm activities, lagged teff market price, access to market information
and cooperative membership were found to significantly influence the probability of
participation in teff output market. Intensity of participation in the teff output market was
significantly determined by sex of household head, age of household head, family size, family
labor and distance to the nearest market. The results also revealed that high cost of fertilizer
and delayed delivery and poor road were the most pressing teff production and marketing
constraints, respectively. Based on the findings, the study recommends that government
should give emphasize on rural education system, family planning program, productivity
improving measures, access to communication facilities and institutional services, enhance
the female headed households and improving rural roads.
