Adoption Of Yam And Its Impact On Rural Household Poverty Status, The Case Of Boloso Bombe Woreda Of Woliyta Zone, South Region, Ethiopia.

Abstract

In Ethiopia agriculture has paramount share of the economy and the main source of livelihoods. However, low adoption of alternative crop varieties one of the main reasons for increase in poverty level in developing country as general and in the study area specifically. This study was aimed to examine the adoption of yam and its impact on rural household poverty in the case of Boloso Bombe woreda, Ethiopia. The specific objectives of the study were to determine poverty gap among household and identify determinants of rural household‟s yam adoption. In addition, the study examines impact of yam adoption on rural household poverty. A two stage stratified random sampling was employed to select 305 sample households from four kebeles. The study employed both primary and secondary sources of data and the data collected through questionnaire and focus group discussion. To realize the research objectives both descriptive and econometric models were employed. The descriptive findings showed that 140 (45.9 %) were adopters based on consumption expenditure poverty measurement approach were poor and 165 (54.1%) were non-adopters. The logistic regression model result indicates that the variable household head, marital status and credit access positively affect the household yam root adoption decision and total livestock size, irrigation access and household saving size negatively affect the household yam root adoption decision. The results of all Matching methods revealed that on average household decide to adapt yam root on their farm land had significant impact on the household annual consumption expenditure size. Propensity score matching model result indicate that adoption of yam have a significant impact in improving farm households poverty status (annual consumption expenditure). Therefore, the government should alleviate this problem through providing a special way of credit scheme to the farmers to purchase inputs with a reasonable amount of interest rate and after production the government should create linkage and network access to market to easily sale their products with reasonable price. In addition, in order to achieve the much-desired poverty reduction in Boloso Bombe Woreda, efforts should be intensified in ensuring that farmers have access to credit to adopt yam root and to reduce poverty.