“Determinants Of Smallholder Farmers Maize Commercialization; In Case Of Chobi District, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia”

Abstract

Agriculture is the main economic activity in developing countries like Ethiopia. Even though agriculture is the spine of their economy; it has not been able to satisfy the food requirements of their people. Hence, it is extremely significant to understand the determinants of agricultural production. Maize is one of the widely cultivated cereal crops in Ethiopia in general and in a study area in particular. The government recognizes the importance of Maize for economic development and emphasized its commercialization in strategies and policies for agricultural transformation. However, Maize production is mainly a subsistent crop and commercialized proportion was very low. In line with this, the main objective of this study is to examine the determinants of smallholder farmers Maize commercialization in the Oromia regional state in the case of the Cobi district. Therefore, this study was intended to measure the degree of commercialization of Maize, to analyze the determinants of Maize production, and to identify Maize output commercialization participation decision and intensity of sale in the Cobi district. A multi-stage random sampling producer was used to select a sample of 356 Maize t-producing households. The data about the 20224/25 production year was collected from sampled households using structured questionnaires. Both descriptive statistics and econometric models were employed for data analysis. The descriptive statistics result showed that the degree of Maize commercialization producers was 27. 28 %. Double hurdle model result indicated that; expect distance from the nearest market and family size other significant variables such as land allocated to Maize, number of owned oxen, educational level of household head, Access to credit, and age of household head had a positive effect on commercialization participation decision in the first hurdle. The intensity of Maize sale positively affected by age of household head, land allocated to wheat production, number of owned oxen, whereas negatively affected by family size in the second hurdle result. The study indicated that the level of commercialization of Maize production was very low in the study area. Therefore, the strategies and policies aiming at promoting smallholder's commercialization in Maize production should be focused on the provision of rural infrastructure strengthen adult education, improve agricultural extension services, improving provisions of input, strengthening institutional arrangement, strengthening to enhance commercialization, generate of surplus wheat output and boost sales.