Impact of Malt-Barley Commercialization Clusters on Productivity at Household Level: The Case of Selected Districts of Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

The Ethiopian government has been implementing a clustering program in smallholder agriculture to transform the sector from subsistence to commercial level via increased quantity and quality of products and thereby income of farmers. Nonetheless, such a program can solicit more resources and best be scaled if its benefits can be well known and documented. To this end, this study aims to evaluate the influence of commercialization clusters on the productivity of malt barley at the household level in the Arsi and West Arsi zones of the Oromia region. A multistage stratified random sampling technique was applied for selecting samples. The sample for this analysis includes 360 households for 180 each member and non-members. Descriptive statistics and Inverse probability weighted regression adjustment were applied to analyze the data. Accordingly, there was a significant difference between members and non-members of the cluster program in age and access to the market. More than a half hectare of land per household is covered with malt barley annually with an average of 24 quintals per hectare. The yield difference was significant between members and non-members on the Nearest-neighbour matching result. Expanding malt barley cluster farming on a larger scale can help the nation in general.