Assessment of challenges of crop production and marketing in Bench-Sheko, Kaffa, Sheka, and West-Omo zones of southwest Ethiopia

This study was conducted to identify the challenges of crop production and marketing in southwest Ethiopia. Primary and secondary sources of data were used. Qualitative and Quantitative data types were collected from 385 respondents through interviews, focus group discussion, key informant interviews, and observations. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and econometric models. Crop productivity was analyzed by the Cobb Douglas model and its efficiency and determinants were identified by the stochastic frontier model. The major bottlenecks of crop production were the low attitude of farmers towards improved technology, low supply and usage of improved seed varieties (94.5%), low supply and use of fertilizers (95%), knowledge and skill gap of farmers (80.1%), poor extension service (57.3%), soil acidity (94.8%), diseases and insect pest (77.8%), conflict (84.9%) and the outbreak of human diseases (60%). Marketing challenges were poor infrastructure (87.3%), lack of market linkage (62.5%), and lack of credit services (70.6%). The Cobb Douglas model result revealed that land size, local seed, improved seed, repetition of weeding, and labor force influenced crop productivity. The mean level of crop technical efficiency was 51.3%. Education level, extension service, access to credit, cooperative membership, number of livestock owned, and soil fertility were influenced crop inefficiency negatively and distance to the farm was positively related to technical inefficiency. Improving extension services and skill of farmers through practical based training and building capacity of extension workers and systems to enhance the attitude of farmers towards technology usage and proper management practices, timely provision of farm inputs, improving road and market access, and provision of credit services to producers were some of the recommendations forwarded to alleviate crop production and marketing challenges in the study areas.