Vegetable production is mainly practiced by smallholder farmers in Ethiopia and it is their main source of income, employment opportunities and improving food security. Although farmers are producing more surplus vegetables, they are not much linked with markets and thus their opportunity to diversify their livelihoods from vegetable production is very much limited. Thus, this study was required to identify factors affecting market participation among smallholder vegetable farmers in southwest Ethiopia. To get the sample respondents two-stage sampling procedures were employed and finally, 240 vegetable producers were selected. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources. To achieve the stated objective probit model was used and its result indicates that age of household head, household family size, education level of household head, labour market, market information and distance from the market place were statistically influencing market participation among smallholder vegetable producers. To enable smallholder's participation in vegetable marketing government interventions is needed to strengthening institutional service, communication and infrastructure facilities. This study may be valuable input for smallholder farmers, policymakers and other stakeholders in revealing the gab in the performance of the current vegetable production system to realize the national development policy.
In Ethiopia, large scale land investments have been expanding into pastoral regions. However, little is known about the consequences of these investments on the food security of the pastoral community. Using Living Standard Measurement Survey data of the World Bank, we find that, on average, about 32% of the respondents from the (agro-)pastoral regions are food insecure. After controlling for confounders, proximity to large scale land investments is associated with additional food intake of up to 745 kcal per day per adult compared to the households located farther away from a large scale land investment. Proximity to large scale land investment has no significant effect on the coping strategies based food security. For households located in proximity to a large scale land investment, food intake significantly increases with access to roads and markets. Proximity to a large scale land investment has a positive effect on household food consumption not necessarily because of direct benefits from large scale land investments, but due to land and soil quality near the large scale land investments.
Agro‐pastoral areas in Ethiopia have been targeted by large‐scale land investments, particularly for the establishment of sugar plantations, since the 1970s. This has led to the displacement of local communities. We investigate the impact of this displacement due to large‐scale land investment on land degradation in semiarid agro‐pastoral areas in Ethiopia. We conducted a survey of 866 households in two agro‐pastoral sites in Ethiopia in 2019, where extensive large‐scale land investment was implemented. We use an endogenous (switching) treatment model to assess the effect of the displacement of households on land degradation. The result shows that 75% of the surveyed households experienced moderate–severe land degradation. Forestlands and grasslands are ranked as the most degraded areas. About 43.7% of the households face a reduction in herd size and 55.8% lost land due to large‐scale land investment, while 86% of the households show a substantial decline in crops and livestock productivity due to land degradation. The results also reveal that the displacement of households leads to a significant increase in land degradation. Household exposure to drought and conflict, the number of livestock, overgrazing, and sharecropping are other drivers of land degradation. Market access, extension services, household income, and mobility, on the other hand, limit the occurrence of land degradation. We conclude that the shifts in property rights from common land used by pastoralists to private land in large‐scale plantations aggravate land degradation in semiarid drylands.
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