Factors affecting teff and wheat market supply in dendi district, west shoa zone, ethiopia

In Ethiopia, Cereal production and marketing are the means of livelihood for millions of smallholder households and it constitutes the single largest sub-sector in economy.Out of the total grain crop area, 79.69 per cent (8.7 million hectares) was covered by cereals. Teff and wheat covered up 23.42 per cent (about 2.6 million hectares) and 13.01per cent (1.4 million hectares) of grain crops area respectively. Agricultural production and productivity is very low and the growth inagricultural output has barely kept pace with human population growth. Supply of agricultural crop in the study area is subjected to seasonal variation where surplussupply at harvest is the main feature. There is lack of sufficient studies which tries to lookinto the factors affectingthe supply of teff and wheat in Dendi district.This study helps in the understanding of factors affecting teff and wheat supply in the district. For the purpose of this study, Dendi district was selected purposively. In the second stage, out of the 48rural Peasant Associations of Dendi district , 4 Peasant Associations each for teff and wheat were selected randomly by using simple random sampling technique. From the available 23 Teff producing Peasant Associations, three were selected randomly.From these 23Peasant Associations, 80 households of Teff producers and 80 households of wheat producers were selected randomly.Interview schedule was used to collect the data. Two types of analysis, namely descriptive and econometric analysis were used for analyzing the data collected from farmers and traders in the study area.Eleven explanatory variables were hypothesized to affect the household level marketable supply of Teff and Wheat. Among these variables, only five variables namely (quantity produced, age and market access, experience and price) were found to be significant while (education, quantity produced and extension access) were found significant for Wheat. The quantity of Teff and Wheat produced at the farm level affected marketable supply of Teff and Wheat positively and significantly. Introduction of improved varieties, application of chemical fertilizers, using of modern technologies, disease and pests control measures should be promoted to increase production. Education has improved the producing household’s ability to acquire new idea in relation to market information and improved production, which in turn enhanced productivity and there by increased marketable supply of Teff and Wheat. Therefore, there is a great need to make information available to farmers at the right time.