Abstract:
Maize was the most productive cereal crops, produced and consumed by most people in
Ethiopia especially in the study area; however, its productivity and life standard of the
community in the study area was not much improved because of supply shortage of hybrid
maize seed. To overcome such problem, seed producers multiply seed in farmer’s farm by
contract farming means. The main objective of this study was to analyze the determinants and
welfare effect of improved seed adoption: A case of smallholder farmers in Sokoru Woreda,
Jimma Zone. Specifically, analyze the factors that affect farmers’ seed multiplication
adoption, to analyze the impact of maize seed multiplication on the participants and
assessing performance of market participants in maize seed multiplication. Multistage
purposive sampling procedure used to draw samples from the total population. In hence, 294
maize grower farmers selected randomly, from those 109 households are those who
participate in maize seed multiplication and considered as treated group. A questionnaire,
FGD with farmers in each kebeles and interviews with the key stakeholders and secondary
data collected from unpublished and published sources used for the study. Primary data
collected from farmers who use improved maize seed in 2011EC cropping year. Descriptive
statistics, such as graphs, tables, mean, standard deviation, and percentage as well as t-test,
and chi-square test employed. PSM (logit estimation) applied to analyze the impact of maize
seed multiplication on households yield and annual income by using computer software
called “STATA” version 14.0. The study’s finding indicates that farmers maize seed
multiplication adoption was determined by; family size, education level of farmers, land
allocated to maize, having livestock, accessibility of commercial fertilizer, access to maize
seed, experience on hybrid maize plant, price of hybrid maize seed, frequency of contact with
DA and having information on maize seed. The ATT at matching algorithm of kernel
bandwidth 0.25 show that maize seed multiplication has positive and significant impact on
yield and annual income. From marketing margin analysis, farmers’ gross and net marketing
margin was 55.72% and 74.2% respectively, while JCU share was 44% and 33.9%. This
shows that seed multiplier farmers have higher share in consumer price. The study
recommends; wisely and timely demand assessment, responsible based stakeholders
management, supply of modern farming instruments and create crop insurances to mitigate
risks
