Abstract:
Agriculture in Ethiopia remains the key sector that provides lion share foreign exchange
earnings and the largest labor force employer. Out of total agricultural output about 95% was
covered by smallholder agriculture sub-sector. However, a number of factors limit farmers from
participating in coffee production and marketing. The main objective of this paper was to
identify household specific factors determining coffee production and marketing in Limmu kossa
woreda. A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted in a sampled population by taking
228 sample sizes using systematic sampling method, out of these selected households 170 were
male headed, and the remaining 58 were female headed. According to the study 135 households
were coffee producers and the rest 93 households were non- producers. The mean age of
sampled household heads was 46.5 years; the maximum and minimum age for household heads
were 81 and 18. Almost all of the respondents own their own land; the farm size of respondents
varies from 0.1 to 9 hectare and the average farm size was found to be 2.41 hectare. 67% of
coffee producers used traditional coffee seed and only 33% of coffee producers used improved
coffee seed. On average, coffee producers generated income birr 17629.17 from sale of coffee in
year 2019/2020.To examine the determinants of farmers’ decision to participate in the
production activity and level of participation, Double hurdle model were used. In the first stage
of double hurdle model, probit regression was used to examine farmers’ decision to participate
in production. In the second stage of double hurdle model truncated regression were used to
analyze level of participation and income generation from sell of coffee. The study indicated that
farm size, active family labor, access to credit, availability of family food, and traveling time to
the nearest market significantly explain the decision to produce coffee. On other hand, only
number of working family members, and land size determine the level of coffee production
participation considerably. Furthermore, the study verified that in addition to the quantity of
coffee marketed, market price, selling time, travelling time from the nearest market and market
information significantly determines the level of income earned from coffee sale. The implication
is that livelihood improvement could be assisted through better participation of farmers in coffee
production and marketing in the area.
