In Ethiopia, teff is an important cereal crop, particularly in Dera district. It is a source of\nfood and provides cash income for majority of smallholder farmers. To commercialize\nteff producers, selecting an appropriate market channel is mandatory. However, selecting\nan appropriate market channel is not an easy task because there are different factors\nthat influence market outlet choices. Therefore, this study aimed to identify factors\nthat influence teff market outlet choices. A two-stage random sampling procedure was\nused and a total of 154 smallholder farmers were randomly and proportionally selected\nto collect primary data. Multivariate probit model was employed to identify factors\naffecting teff market outlet choices. The result of the study shows that the probability\nof teff producers to choose wholesaler, retailer, consumer and cooperative market\noutlets was 31.82%, 35.71%, 37.01% and 16.88%, respectively. This shows that consumer\nwas the most likely chosen market outlet while cooperative was the less likely\nchosen market outlet. The joint probability of farmers to choose the four market outlets\nis (0.1%) lower than the likely of no choosing four market outlets (19.5%). The result of\nmultivariate probit model revealed that age of household head, land size, quantity of\nteff produced, lagged price of teff, family size (AE), membership of cooperatives and\ndistance to the nearest market were found to be statistically and significantly affecting\nthe market outlet choice behavior of teff producers. This implies that improving the\nproduction capacity of farmers and invests on rural cooperatives would help smallholder\nfarmers to choose the rewarding market outlet. Therefore, the study suggested\nthat improving the existing production system, farmers relying on intensive cultivation;\ngiving better price for farmers and being membership of cooperative are important\nstrategies to select the appropriate market channel.
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