Commercialization of Moringa: Evidence from Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The policies in Ethiopia to advance the commercial orientation of farmers need identification of challenges at farmer level and exhaustive actions to shift the farm sector. Further activities have to be done to change the country's present subsistence-oriented farm production system of different crops. The research has aimed at investigating factors determining the Moringa commercialization in southern Ethiopia. The cross-sectional survey method was used to identify 232 Moringa producing smallholder farmers from Wolaita and Gamo zones. Heckman's two-step sample selection model is adopted to find factors determining the probability of Moringa market participation and the intensity of participation. The study result revealed that the likelihood of the Moringa output market participation is influenced by the variables such as location, access to irrigation, and distance to market. On the other hand family size, per capita income, frequency of extension contact, access to irrigation, access to credit, and distance to market are among significantly influencing factors of the extent of Moringa marketing. Therefore, policy agents should mainly consider these variables on any development activities to improve Moringa marketing. Furthermore, it requires improving extension services and offering immediate practical training on techniques of market-oriented and value-added Moringa production and marketing systems.

Factors Influencing the Extent of the Commercialization of Indigenous Crops Among Smallholder Farmers in the Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces of South Africa

“…The most used econometric analytical techniques in the analysis of crop market participation include Tobit models, doublehurdle models, and Heckman sample selection models (Donkor et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2020;Tafesse et al, 2020). The Heckman approach is more suitable for incidental truncation where the unobserved values are represented by the zeros; for instance, in situations of wage rate models where the unemployed people are included in the sample (Heckman, 1976;Cameron and Trivedi, 2005).…”

Commercialisation level and determinants of agricultural commercialisation of farmers in the highland of Vietnam

“…The dependent variable was farmers' commercialisation of agricultural produce and it was measured by ACI. The independent variables were chosen from relevant literature (Cazzuffi et al ., 2020; Hoang, 2022; Ogutu and Qaim, 2019; Rubhara and Mudhara, 2019; Tafesse et al ., 2020; Tipraqsa and Schreinemachers, 2009; Truong, 2009) and based on the main characteristics of farmers in the study region. Table 1 describes hypothesised dependent and independent variables in farmers' commercialisation of agricultural produce.…”

“…Some regions may have well-developed informal educational system. In a research by Tafesse et al . (2020), the author found that family size had a positive impact on farmers' commercialisation of agricultural produce.…”

“…Some regions may have well-developed informal educational system. In a research by Tafesse et al (2020), the author found that family size had a positive impact on farmers' commercialisation of agricultural produce. However, results from some other studies (Bekele and Alemu, 2015;Jaleta et al, 2009) showed that family size was negatively associated with agricultural commercialisation of farmers.…”

“…The reasons for this discrepancy of findings could be different number of main labours of a household participating in agricultural activities. Prior research (Gebregziabher et al ., 2009; Tesfay, 2020) showed that irrigation access positively affected the commercialisation of agriculture, whereas results from study of (Kabiti et al ., 2016; Tafesse et al ., 2020) showed that irrigation access was not statistically associated with farmers' commercialisation of agricultural produce. Different types of agricultural practices in the study region such as fully irrigated and both irrigated/rain-fed agricultural practices could have resulted in these mixed findings.…”