Determinants of Rural-Urban Linkage for Local Economic Development: The Case of Jimma Town and Its Surrounding Rural Areas, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine determinants of Rural-Urban linkages for local economic developments with reference to Jimma Town and its hinterland. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the necessary data were gathered both from primary and secondary sources. On the first stage based on geographic proximity and service catchment with the town, 2 kebeles were selected from rural areas purposively and one kebele from Jimma town was randomly chosen. Then a random sample sampling technique was used to select household heads. The sample consisted of 355 household’s heads. Both descriptive and econometrics analysis were employed to meet the objective of the study. The result from the descriptive analysis indicates that, most of the linkages that exist in the study area are sectorial linkages and spatial linkages. The nature and type of these linkages are affected by such factors like limited agricultural inputs, infrastructure, subsistence nature of production, lack of market information and distance. The study found that educational status of the respondents, marital status of the respondents, Credit accessibility and distance from the town were found to have statistically a significant positive influence on enhancing urban rural linkages. On the other hand, Age of the respondents had a significant negative influence on enhancing urban rural linkages for local economic developments. Land holding of the house hold heads was insignificant but has positive association with rural urban linkage of the study area. The findings of the study also show that the production linkages were very weak except for the backward production linkage which was reflected mainly in the use of inputs. The insufficient crop production of rural hinterland had made the existing marketing linkage to be expressed more in the form of livestock and Coffee marketing linkage than crops.