Abstract:
Background: Agriculture is the foundation of the Ethiopian economy, and it also influences the
growth of all other industries. The purpose of this study was to assess the determinants of small
holder farmer’s participation in cluster farming of wheat production in rural villages of Ejere
woreda, west shoa, Ethiopia
Methods and materials: Community based cross-sectional study design was undertaken. Both
quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used where the target households are
identified using purposive sampling and simple random sampling techniques. A primary data
using a semi-structured questionnaire was collected from sample of 148 participants and also
utilized personnel interview and secondary data as source of information. Descriptive statistics
was employed to use mean, standard deviation, percentages, minimum and maximum to
characterize the socioeconomic, socio demographic, and pertinent aspects of sample houses. To
examine the proportion and mean of the difference between cluster farmer participants and non participants in terms of the dummy and continuous variables using the chi-2 test and t-test,
inferential statistics was also used. Binary Logit regression model was used to estimate the
factors influencing the decision to smallholder farmers to participate in cluster wheat production
practice.
Results: A total of 148 (94.8 %response rate) responded to complete all the questionnaires. The
data had revealed 57.69% (n=85) households participated in cluster wheat production practice
and from smallholders who were participated in cluster wheat production practice 80% of them
were found to be male and 20% of them are female. The mean age of participant and non participant in cluster of wheat production practice was 39.80 and 44.07 in years respectively.
Findings of this study revealed that; gender, awareness, educational status and training variable
were statistically and positively affect smallholder farmers’ participation of cluster in wheat
production practice. Furthermore, age of farmers, access to credit, and extension contact were
significant and negatively influence smallholder farmers’ participation of cluster in wheat
production practice.
Conclusion and recommendation: The study concluded that the participation of small holder
farmers in cluster wheat production is far from full coverage. Based on the results it is
recommended that effective and sustainable on integrated cluster wheat production practice and
promote cluster-based farming operation for effective use of farm product. Accessibility will be
enhanced as clusters will give a chance for the service provider to work on more number of
results and encourage farmers.
