Determinants Of Small Holder Farmer’s Participation In Cluster Farming Of Wheat Production Practice In Rural Villages Of Ejere Wereda, West Shoa, Ethiopia

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.