Abstract:
Although Ethiopia is one of the largest producers of chickpea in Africa, the marketing system of chickpea is highly underdeveloped and poorly organized. Therefore, this study attempted to analyze market chain of chickpea in West Dembiya Woreda. Multi stage sampling technique was used to select 369 chickpea producer farmers as a sample from randomly selected four chickpea producer Kebeles in the study area. Additionally, 5 wholesalers and 70 local collector chickpea traders were used as a source of data. Descriptive statistics and econometric models were employed to analyze the data. Multiple linear regression and multivariate probit model were employed to analyze determinants of chickpea market supply and to identify factors affecting farmers’ chickpea market outlet choices respectively. The structure-Conduct-Performance result indicated that chickpea market in the study area deviation from competitive market norms and being inefficient.Ordinary least square regression model results showed that age of household head, education level of household head, household size, chickpeafarming experience, land size allocated for chickpea, quantity of chickpea produced, oxen owned by the household and participation in non/off-farming activities significantly affected the quantity of chickpea supplied to market. Multivariate probit model results indicated that quantity of chickpea supplied to market, access to market information, credit utilization, trust in buyers, participation in non- farm activities, age of household head, farming experience, quantity of chickpea produced and current price of chickpea affected chickpea producers choice of alternatives market outlets significantly. Government and stakeholders need to focus on strengthening formal and informal education, improving farmers’ knowledge and experience on chickpea production, improving productivity and volume of sales of chickpea, accessing credit service and building capacity to use appropriate market outlet to minimize cost and earn reasonable margin and profit.
Keywords: Chickpea; Market supply; Market outlet; multiple linear regressions; Multivariate probit.