Determinants of market participation among smallholder vegetable producers in Southwest Ethiopia
Main Article Content
Abstract
Market participation of smallholder farmers is important for Ethiopian economic growth. However, the market participation of smallholder farmers remains low, due to several problems. There is a need to deliberately improve the smallholder farmers' market participation and intensity of participation to facilitate stable incomes and sustainable livelihoods. In this study, the market-related factors that are problematic to smallholder farmers were investigated. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 420 samples of households randomly from nine kebele administrations. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources by using structured questionnaire. The double hurdle model was used to identify factors affecting the market
participation decision and intensity of participation. The result indicates that market participation of smallholder farmers was significantly affected by the use of fertilizer, education status, land allotted for vegetable, membership in cooperatives, access to information, owing to a motor pump and transportation means. The intensity of market participation was significantly influenced by the use of fertilizer, education status, extension contact, distance to the market, uses of credit, and access to market information. Based on the findings it is recommended that the government and non-government organization have to improve land productivity by increasing the provision of inputs, strengthen the rural education system, delivering effective and proactive extension services, create reliable
market information, provide good transport facilities for farmers, establish rural finance schemes to address the credit needs of smallholders and encourage farmers to form and maintain effective groups.