Tag: Ethiopia

The study was conducted in Gololcha District of Arsi Zone with the objective of identifying determinants of coffee producer market outlet choice. The primary data were collected through personal interviews from a total of 154 producers, using structured and semi-structured questionnaires. The multivariate probit model result indicated that the sex of the household head, level of education, means of transport ownership and access to information had positively influenced choice of wholesaler and negatively influenced choice of agent middle-men. Level of education was significantly and negatively related with agent middle-men, and significantly and positively influenced cooperatives’ and wholesalers’ channel choice. Enhancing institutional and infrastructural (transportation and extension) facilities is necessary to enable coffee producers to select efficient channels. In addition, the study recommends that steps be taken to establish and support multi-purpose coffee farmers’ cooperatives – grow their membership, as this should increase farmers’ income through marketing activities and supply of important inputs.

The government of Ethiopia is aiming to boost sugarcane and ethanol production, together with cogeneration. To achieve this goal, enormous sugarcane production strategies have been undertaken without there being concrete evidence as to theirs benefits or detriments to the welfare of households. Here, we used a computable general equilibrium model and SAM dataset to provide useful insights into this story. The results of the study indicate that the average aggregate income and consumption expenditure of households compared to the baseline scenario are negative, although the magnitude of the loss is small. We further find strong evidence that the average aggregate economic welfare of households has deteriorated by 3.43 percent and we conclude that the strategies that the government has been implementing are detrimental to welfare and devastating. Thus, we suggest that the government should cease sugarcane expansion that succeeds at the expense of food crops and policies that favour the use of marginal and barren lands for upcoming sugarcane projects should instead be implemented.