Abstract

Tigabu Dagnew Koye*, Abebe Birara Dessie and Tegegne Debas Malede

In Ethiopia, agricultural transformation is faced with many challenges such as poor infrastructure especially in a rural area where huge agricultural activities are carried out, poor institutional services, lack of awareness of farmers on the value addition of goods, and so on. To fill this knowledge gap, this study was aimed at the determinants of market orientation and market participation in Central and North Gondar Rural Ethiopia separately. The data have collected from a sample of 344 households selected using multistage purposive and random sampling techniques. Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) and Tobit regression models were employed. The SUR model estimation indicated adult equivalent, chemical fertilizer users and Tropical Livestock Unit (TLU) affect both market-oriented cash and stable crops positively, while child dependency ratio, cultivated land, the distance to the market, and road affect both market-oriented cash and stable crops negatively. Level of education (grading), and irrigation users affect market-oriented cash and stable crops positively, respectively. The empirical results of the Tobit model show that cultivated land, land allocated to staples, off/non-farm income, and irrigation user affect crop commercialization positively. Based on the findings, the study suggests that farmers should keep going to employ additional off-farm income activities, improve rural-urban roads, employ agricultural intensification, and the government should be supplied chemical fertilizer in sufficient amounts and on time at a reasonable price to improve farmers’ crop production.