A Research Proposal Presentation on:

Analyzing Market Linkages of Farmers’ wheat products in Ethiopia: A Study on Bale Zone Smallholder farmers, Oromia Region.

Presented by:

Kasim Kelil (MBA)

Presented To:

UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS

Virtual Research Week 2021

 October, 2021

Bale Robe, Ethiopia

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Title of the proposal

Analyzing Market Linkages of Farmers’ wheat products in Ethiopia: A Study on Bale Zone Smallholder farmers, Oromia Region.

Content of the research Proposal

• Background of the study
• Statement of the Problem
• Significance of the Study
• Objectives of the Study
• Research Questions
• Scope of the Study
• Research Methodology
• Expected outcomes

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Background of the study

• Agricultural marketing is a process which starts with a decision to produce a saleable farm commodity and it involves all aspects of market structure of system, both functional and institutional, based on technical and economic considerations and includes pre and post- harvest operations, assembling, grading, storage, transportation and distribution (Addisu, 2016).

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Cont…..

• Agriculture is a core driver of the Ethiopian economy. It accounts for about
• 45 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),
• employs more than 85 percent of the total population that is directly or indirectly engaged in agriculture
• provides raw materials for 70% of the industries in the country (Dawit et al., 2010).

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Cont.……..

• Markets Linkages connect the parties involved in producing the products and delivering the services for any and every market. As such when linkages are absent or weak, markets become inefficient. This result in reliance upon imported goods and services (Thomas, 2014).

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Cont.……..

• In order to become active players in the global agricultural industry, farmers from developing countries will need to raise production efficiency and quality standards , and embrace a stronger business perspective and reassess their current set of farming activities(Henson & Cranfield, 2009).

Cont.……..

• Former studies show that the market of wheat farmer continues to face a number of problems and challenges. The major ones are absence of business oriented agricultural production system, intermediary constraints, lack of sustainable market outlet, limited or no access to market facilities resulting in low participation of the smallholder farmers in market (Bezabih, 2010).

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Cont.……..

• Analyze the market linkages and constraints of smallholder wheat farmers of Bale zone in the Oromia region of Ethiopia is the main objective of this study.

Statement of the Problem

• Wheat marketing is still traditional in Ethiopia. Farmers bring different wheat to the traders or cooperatives at market places where they mix wheat and does not target the final product like biscuit, pasta, bread, etc (FAO, 2009).

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• Farmers have weak bargaining power and high transaction cost due to their lack of information about market. They are exposed to exploitation practices of middlemen because the majority of them have no up-to-date information on prevailing market price (Poole, 2017).

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Cont…….

• However smallholder farmer participation in modern marketing channel is not well functioning as well as not properly linked to market, and not use market information (Marcus, 2015).

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Cont.…….

• The researcher will motivated to conduct this study because study support the purpose of national and regional interest by investigating market linkage of wheat producers. Most importantly, the study is expected to work better on improved strategies for inadequate market linkage for the benefit of small farmers’ sustainable market development.

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Significance of the Study �

• The finding of the study might also be useful to government and non-governmental organizations, suppliers, producers, traders, consumers, and marketing agents to make their respective decisions.

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• Academically contribute for the researcher to have a real knowledge regarding market linkage concept on the ground and it may also serve as a reference material for further research.

Research Contribution to Knowledge��

• This Research will contribute to the growing literature on smallholder farmer participation in emerging markets.
• At the macro level, the study will be able to guide policymakers in designing strategies and policies that can enhance the performance of agro-processing firms and boost production and incomes for smallholder wheat producers in Ethiopia.

Objectives of the Study

The general objective of this study is to analyse smallholder farmers’ wheat product Market Linkage in Bale Zone

The specific objectives are the following:

• To identify factors affecting wheat farmers to access market.
• To assess the wheat market linkage practice in the study area.
• To assess the “level” of wheat market connection in the Bale Zone.
• To examine the marketing strategies capable of strengthening and sustaining the market linkage of smallholder wheat farmers in the Bale Zone.

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Research Questions

• What are the factors that affect smallholder farmer’s market access?
• How does the market linkage practice in the study area?
• What is the “level” of connection wheat market in the Bale Zone?
• How effective marketing strategies capable of strengthening and sustaining market linkage for smallholder wheat farmers of Bale Zone?

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Scope of the Study

The study is delimited conceptually, geographically and methodologically.

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• Conceptually; in this study the researchers focus on the concept of market linkage analysis for wheat farmers.

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• Geographically; geographically the study is limited to Bale Zone Oromia region eastern part of Ethiopia.

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• Methodologically; this study will try to include only major actors and channels of 423 sample. i.e. household farmers, wholesaler, and wheat flour factory managers.

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Research Methodology

The Study Area Description

• Bale Zone is Located in south eastern part of Ethiopia, 430 km from the Addis Ababa (Capital city of Ethiopia) with the capital city of Robe.
• Bale zone is one of the 18 Zones of the Oromia National Regional State.
• Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the CSA, Bale Zone has a total Population of 1,402,492, of whom 713,517 are men and 688,975 women.
• The specific area of this study is Bale zone.
• The major crops produced in the district are wheat, barley, pulses and oil crops.

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Research Approaches�

• This study combines both qualitative research methods and quantitative survey methods for the sake of understanding nature of agricultural marketing system and examining the effect agricultural marketing linkage on small farmers’ market access.

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Research design��

• Descriptive type of research design is employed as main research design for this study to the realization of intended objectives. It helps describe or identify what is a smallholder farmers’ market linkage phenomenon under study as it is.
• Causal research design will establish the relationship between the factors affecting market linkages and smallholder farmers’ market linkage variables.

Population, Sampling Method and Sample Size�

• The target populations of this study are Bale zone household farmers, wholesaler and wheat flour factory managers.
• In the first stage, Bale Zone were selected purposely as it has the largest area under wheat production in the study Region. In second stage out 18 woredas 4 woredas will be targeted.
• Then 397 household head farmers selected randomly .
• 20 wholesalers were selected through snowball sampling method.
• 6 flour factory manager in the target area were selected for interview.

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Type and Source of Data�

• Both quantitative and qualitative type of data will be used in this study.
• Source of data are both primary and secondary.

Method of Data Collection

• primary data will collect from the sample through open and close ended questionnaire, non-structured personal Interview and observation.
• Moreover, secondary data were collected from different data sources especially from books, journal article that helps to fill the knowledge gap and understand the concepts of study.

Research Validity and Reliability�

• To secure reliability of the study questionnaire will designed where by relevant information will obtained. To this end, Cronbach's Alpha reliability test will be conducted by distributing the questionnaire to 20% samples from the total sample of the study.

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Methods of Data Analysis�

• The collected data will be analyzed using particularly multiple linear regression and descriptive statistical techniques. This allow the researcher to describe the data and examine relationships between variables. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 20 will employ to analyze and present the data.

Regression functions�

The basic objective of using regression equation is to make the researcher more effective at describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling the stated variables.

Regress market linkage on the constraints

Y = β1 + β2X2 + β3X3 + β 4X4 + β 5X5 + β6X6

• Where Y is the dependent variable- (Market linkage),
• Access to Market Information=X2,
• Marketing channels=X3, independent V
• Farmers capacity =X4,
• Availability of storage and transportation facilities=X5 and
• Nature of wheat product and market=X6 are the explanatory variables (or the regresses).

Expected outcomes

• At the end of this study the result is expected that farmers’ problem regarding market linkage is alleviated and they are producing saleable wheat product to provide by searching new opportunity market.

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• Additionally, the study will expected to increase farmers’ market oriented wheat production, reliable supply of wheat product, strong farmers’ market linkage and recommend best strategies of marketing that helps to get sustainable access of wheat market.

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Research Ethics��

• First, the researcher will collected the data appropriately and made conclusions being only based on the data collected not with his personal intuition.
• Second, the researcher will tried to free respondent from bias by refraining from asking leading questions that can distort the response to a predetermined generalization.
• Third, the researcher will appreciated the efforts made by the respondents by carefully including their responses in the research and keeping their anonymity.