Constraints of Citrus Marketing in Seka Chekorsa District of Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Citrus is highly produced economical crop in Ethiopia and serves as one of the major source of livelihood for a large number of farmers, middlemen and traders. In Jimma zone (in case of Seka Chekorsa district), there are consolidate production of citrus at household level. The aimed of this research is to identify the constraints of citrus marketing and to examine factors affecting citrus supply in Seka Chekorsa district. A total of 70 sample farmers were used and a total of 15 actors were investigated to know how the products flow from producers to consumers. Among them; 8 are brokers/local collectors, 4 are retailers and 3 are wholesalers. Both Primary and secondary data were collected. Similarly both descriptive method and econometric model were used for analysis of the result. As a result of the survey, it was found that citrus production is high in the area and supplies the product to their neighbors, local markets, seka district, and Jimma town also. Many constraints that hinder the performance of citrus marketing in the area were indentified. Among them lack of transportation, low price for the products, lack of market information and also currently low yield due to the result of disease are the most common one. Some socio-economic and technical constraints that exist are lack of finance, lack of cool storage facilities, and poor packaging of the products. All these constraints contribute to decrease the value of the products both in term of quality and quantity. The study also indentified total yield, farming experience and land allocated for citrus affects positively and significant quantity of citrus supplied to the market. Therefore citrus marketing and demand for consumption increase if producers supported with different physical and financial, as well as extension workers should give technical training to producers on how to harvest, and pack their product in order to keep their quality high. Keywords: Citrus, Constraints, Socio-Economic, Farming and Marketing.