The impact of improved road networks on marketing of vegetables and households' income in Dedo district, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia

Rural infrastructures are important factors which are involved in agricultural development in Ethiopia. Among them, rural road facilities play a very significant role in the improvement of agricultural production and household income. This is because a good rural road network hurries efficient delivery of agricultural farm input and creates an opportunity to supply product to market. Currently, poor road conditions are hindering supply of product to market, which in turn affects households' annual income in most rural areas of Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to asses the impact of improved road networks on marketing of vegetables and households' income in Dedo district in Ethiopia. For the study, two kebele were selected and data were collected from randomly selected 176 households from two kebele in the district. In addition to this, key informant interviews and focus group discussions were also conducted. Data were analyzed by multiple response tests and multiple linear regression models on statistical packages of the social sciences (SPSS). Study found that, from the total annual income of households; 58.5% of income was earned from vegetable production and it takes a lion share of households’ annual income in the study area. Regression results revealed that independent variables in the study had an insignificant influence on rural household annual income (p < 0.05). The multiple correlation coefficient measure (R = 0.845) also indicates that the relationship between rural household annual income and independent (set of explanatory) variables was strongly correlated. Findings also expose that high transportation costs incurring, spoilage of the product, deprived extension, service and market information, and reduction of household income are among the major impacts of road infrastructure in the district. Therefore, study suggested that rural households must have gained road access and federal and local road authorities should give attention to rural area road infrastructural development.