Determinants of teff commercialization among smallholder farmers: Beta regression approach
Adugnaw Anteneh, Birara Endalew
Abstract
In Ethiopia, agricultural commercialization is not well developed. Smallholder farmers with a subsistence farming system dominate crop production, resulting in incompetent and less commercialized produce. As a result, producing market-oriented products can increase the well-being of smallholder farmers. Accordingly, we conducted this study to analyze determinants of teff commercialization among smallholder farmers in Hulet Eju Enese Woreda, Ethiopia. The primary data were collected from 384 randomly selected smallholder farmers to measure the level of teff commercialization and analyze determinants of teff commercialization among smallholder farmers. To address the objectives of this study, an output commercialization index, and a beta regression model were used. The findings show that about 77.2% of smallholder farmers are classified as commercial, while semicommercial farmers account for 22.8% of all observations. Furthermore, the model results revealed that the number of oxen, teff land size, farming experience in teff production, market distance, and agroecology had statistically significant effects on teff commercialization. Therefore, sources of improved traction power, land productivity, market infrastructure, experience-sharing strategies, and new varieties that can adapt to varied agroecology should be given special priority to increase smallholder farmers’ commercialization.