Smallholder Farmers’ Teff Commercialization in Guduru District of Horro Guduru Wollega, Ethiopia

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.