Abstract:
This study was the analysis of economic efficiency and marketing of small scale malt barley productions: in case of ambo district, Oromia region, Ethiopia. The study used purposive sampling and simple random sampling to select the district and respondents respectively. Data were collected using structured interview and analyzed by STATA software. It was based on the cross sectional data collected in 2021 production season from 136 randomly selected farm households. The results from the production function indicated that inorganic fertilizers, area land, human labour, oxen labour and seed were positively and significantly determining malt barley production. The study also indicated that 78.20%, 46.05% and 35.26% were the mean levels of TE, AE and EE, respectively. Improved efficiency can still be achieved and there was a great potential for increasing the gross output and profit with the existing level of resource base. The results revealed that age, education, total cultivated land, extension contact, training, total expenditure, and livestock ownership significantly influence allocative efficiency of smallholders in the study area. Moreover, the study contributes to improve farm efficiency generally helps agricultural as well as economic development. The government has to give due attention for training farmers through strengthening and establishing both formal and informal type of farmers' education, farmers' training centers, technical and vocational schools as farmer education would reduce technical, allocative and economic inefficiencies. Effort must also focus on liking modern farming practice with the indigenous knowledge and to the institutional and socio-economic problems in the area by agricultural sector and development agent.
