Chicken farming is an important livelihood activity for households in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, contributing to income generation and access to animal-source foods. However, robust evidence on the welfare impacts of improved chicken production systems remains limited. This study examined the effects of adopting improved chicken production systems on household income and dietary diversity among chicken-producing households. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,005 households across 11 districts in Tigray. Data were collected through structured face-to-face interviews, with annual household income from chicken production and Household Dietary Diversity Scores (HDDS) used as the primary outcome indicators. An Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model was employed to correct for potential self-selection bias and estimate the welfare effects of adopting improved chicken production systems on income and dietary diversity outcomes. Results indicated that adoption of improved chicken production systems generated substantial economic and nutritional benefits. Adopting households gained, on average, USD 666 annually compared with the income they would have achieved under traditional production systems, while non-adopting households could potentially increase their annual income by USD 710 if they adopted improved systems. The overall average income gain attributable to adoption was estimated at USD 690 per household. Adoption also improved household dietary diversity, increasing HDDS by 0.52 food groups among adopters and by 0.31 food groups among non-adopters under the counterfactual adoption scenario, with an overall average improvement of 0.42 food groups. Adoption of improved chicken production systems was positively associated with younger household heads, higher educational attainment, larger flock sizes, and improved access to veterinary services, whereas female-headed households and households with larger livestock holdings were less likely to adopt. Overall, improved chicken production systems generated substantial economic and nutritional gains, underscoring their potential to strengthen household livelihoods and food security in Tigray. Expanding access to veterinary and extension services, strengthening producer training, and improving access to affordable, quality production inputs are essential to accelerate adoption and maximize these benefits, particularly among resource-constrained households.

The level and determinants of technical efficiency in milk-producing households are examined in connection with households’ level of commercialization. A sample of 469 milk producers are modeled using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). Average Technical Efficiency (TE) is estimated to be 80%, with variation among regions and generally reflecting levels of commercialization. Results show that assuming milk producers are rational, TE is increased by increasing the number of cattle, cows, and crossbreeds, and by additinal veterinary and feed inputs. These results support much existing research, and our contribution is the extension of analysis to actions and characteristics of the value chain due to commercial behaviors. We identify both direct and indirect potential effects of commercialization and identify mechanisms for their operation in development programs for commercial value chains. We find that credit access, training, group membership, market participation, and female household all improve TE while non-cattle income would reduce TE. We present sub-groups of households to better contrast levels of productivity and compare a limited number of the sub-groups' characteristics and actions. We provide commentary and explanation regarding commercialization and its direct and indirect connections to productivity. Recommendations include partnerships and facilitating actions that support commercialization, in association with improving efficiency in Tanzanian dairy.

Livestock diseases are a priority problem for livestock keepers throughout Ethiopia. Livestock keepers have also singled out poor animal health service delivery, which is largely the domain of the public sector, as the major constraint to improving animal health and productivity. In the current study, we describe the animal health service delivery system and compile from five questionnaire surveys involving 4,162 livestock keepers to characterize animal health service delivery in Ethiopia. The mapping of the animal health service delivery system along the livestock value chain clearly highlights the role of informal animal health services and variations of roles of the private sector. Also, the survey results clearly showed that livestock keepers' access to, use of and satisfaction with animal health services significantly varied across livestock production systems, geographic locations, socioeconomic strata, and service providers. Livestock keepers in crop-livestock and agropastoral systems had 5.5 (odds ratio = 5.453, P = 0.000) and 2.5 (odds ratio = 2.482, P = 0.000) times more access to services in reference to the pastoral system. In reference to private veterinary clinics, livestock keepers reported higher access to services provided by all the other service providers, particularly to services provided by extension agents, drug shops and CAHWs. Similarly, better access was reported by male than female (odds ratio = 1.098; P = 0.025) and wealthier than poorer (odds ratios = 1.40–1.79; P = 0.000) farmers and pastoralists. In general, low access to services was reported, 32.7, 25.2, and 19.3% of the respondents reporting access in crop-livestock, agropastoral and pastoral systems, respectively. Effective demand for services was evaluated through proxy variables, namely number of visits to service providers and health expenditures over a year. Highland farmers used the services more often than pastoralists (odds ratio = 2.86; P = 0.000), but pastoralists' expenses were significantly higher. Wealth (measured by livestock owned), gender and age also had significant effects on the use of services and expenditure on services. Satisfaction with services was evaluated based on four measures, namely availability (av), accessibility (ac), quality (qw), and timeliness (tm) of services. The average scores (out of 10) for av, ac, qw, and tm were 6.1, 5.9, 6.2, and 5.7, respectively. Principal component analysis was conducted to derive the latent variable “satisfaction” from the four measures, extracted only one factor, indicating the four variables are measuring the same construct (satisfaction). Regressing the latent variable satisfaction on the four measures gave significant (P = 0.000) b values of 0.22, 0.20, 0.13, and 0.14 for av, ac, qw, and tm, respectively, indicating strong relationships between the latent variable satisfaction and its measures. There was a significant dissatisfaction with the public sector, with average scores of 0.06 and 0.19 for the public and private service providers, respectively. It can be concluded that livestock keepers in remote regions of the country, pastoralists, women, poorer, and older livestock keepers have less access to services. Satisfaction with services is low to medium and the major concerns of livestock keepers appears to be availability and accessibility of services. Based on our findings, we recommend an integrated, multi-sectoral involvement to improve the veterinary service delivery through improved veterinary infrastructure, public-private partnership, and animal health information system across the various livestock production systems.

Context It is widely recognised that village poultry play important roles nutritionally, economically and socio-culturally in developing countries such as Ethiopia where the sector makes up the largest portion of the national poultry meat and egg production. The importance of socioeconomic environment for improving the contribution of village poultry to household income and diets is receiving little attention in research and development. Aims The present study examined whether and to what extent household, flock, institutional and infrastructural factors enable or constrain village poultry marketing and consumption. Methods The results of the study are based on analysis of data drawn from a cross-sectional survey of 5004 households conducted in four regions of Ethiopia. On the basis of the type of dependent variable, probit and ordinary least squares regression models and marginal effects were used to determine whether and how much the aforementioned factors affect household involvement in marketing or consumption of village poultry. Key results Flock size per household highly significantly and positively affected poultry selling. Majority of the households (82%) sold their poultry primarily for covering planned household expenses. Male-headed households had a lower likelihood of selling poultry and an increased mean number of birds consumed, than did female-headed households. A lower probability of selling poultry was associated with an increasing household-asset ownership and an increasing distance to a market town. Participation in training increased poultry consumption per household. Conclusions Our empirical results showed that factors related to household characteristics, flock size, infrastructure and institutional services affected marketing and consumption of household poultry. Household attributes are important to identify and target the right groups for poultry research and development, and market infrastructure and institutional services have to be developed for improving opportunities of smallholders to better benefit from poultry marketing or consumption. Implications Finally, along with technical efforts to increase production, sustainability and nutritional and economic impacts could be improved if research and development interventions were to holistically take into account the socioeconomic and institutional context under which poultry-producing households operate.

Because of inadequacies and often dismal outcomes associated with state-centric forest management, devolution of forest tenure rights to communities is suggested for achieving sustainable forest management. Based on data collected from 110 community forests covering four major regions of Ethiopia we empirically analyze the determinants of success of community forestry (CF) and characterize institutional attributes of community forests. A key question addressed in this paper is: what are the important characteristics and factors of successful community forestry? Improvements in subsistence value and commercial value of CF are the main attributes of success considered. Specifically we consider: (i) user group's and forester's ranking of forest condition, i.e., subsistence/commercial value of forest, and (ii) value of forest products harvested from the commons as indicators of success. We use Elinor Ostrom's design principles to assess institutional strength of CF systems in addition to considering ecological, social and economic factors that may also influence success. Results show that the majority of both forest users and foresters view the CF toward subsistence rather than commercial value. Our results also show that a variety of factors are correlated with attributes of success. Access to infrastructure (specifically distance to nearest market and access to electricity), community attributes such as number of beneficiary households and forest dependency, and institutions (index of institutional design features) affect attributes of success positively. Ecological factors such as soil types particularly sand positively affect success while loam soil negatively affects success. Moreover, steeper slopes negatively affect success of CF. The findings contribute to the literature on the success of CF and highlight important implications for policy and development practice to promote CF. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thin agricultural markets in Ethiopia compound problems that smallholder farm households encounter in input -output marketing. Studying prevailing constraints and farm households-related and institutional factors that govern input output marketing can help foster market participation and commercialization through t ailor-made interventions. Hence, this study investigated opportunities and constraints in wheat input and output marketing in T igray. It also examined determinants of smallholder market participation and sales intensity. Primary data were collected from randomly selected 320 smallholder farm households out of the total households. Descriptive statistics and pairwise ranking were used to analyse the opportunities and constraints in wheat input -output marketing. The probit model was used to estimate market participation and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model for intensity of market participation. The result shows that area of farmland at (1%), selling price at (5%), livestock number at (5%) and access to market information at (10%) were found to have statistically significant effect on market participation. Moreover, wheat output market was found to significantly respond to landholding size and number of livestock. The major constraints in input-output marketing were lack of transport, high price of improved seeds, fertilizers and chemicals, lack of market information about inputs, low price of wheat product and weak market linkages among value chain actors. In conclusion, to promote wheat market participation as well as wheat supply to the market in a sustainable way, strengthening collective marketing, creating a system for market information, intervening to increase production and productivity of wheat, and strengthening extension services are needed.

Rural and urban areas are economically, socially, and environmentally interlinked spaces. Ecosystem services are among the major areas of rural-urban linkages in which their interdependence is highly manifested. This paper is based on the systematic review of diversified theoretical and empirical literature. The different mutual benefits that rural and urban areas gain from their linkage are analyzed from the ecosystem services perspective. The main aim was to explain how rural area ecosystem services can be used to strengthen rural-urban linkages. Urban development is generally unthinkable in the absence of rural development, particularly for areas where agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. Rural areas are absolutely necessary for urban areas to function. Almost all ecosystem services of urban areas are imported from rural areas. Urban areas rely on rural areas to meet their demands for food, water, wood, raw materials, etc., which are basically products of rural ecosystem services. Nevertheless, the benefit that rural areas gain from urban development, such as market, farm inputs, employment opportunities, etc. should not be overlooked. Thus, well managed rural-urban linkage is imperative based on a principle that urban development should not affect the supply of rural ecosystem services and rural life at all. Furthermore, the rural population should be given policy attention to the ecosystem services the rural areas are providing and the rural area's ecosystem should be protected for its sustainable service delivery.

Ethiopia is one of the top five avocado producers in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite increasing recognition for its nutritional value and economic importance, information on smallholder avocado production systems across agro-climatic zones and determinants for tree productivity are literally lacking. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to examine the determinants for avocado tree holdings by smallholder farmers and investigate the effect of avocado production systems and management conditions on fruit yield by individual avocado trees in Southern Ethiopia. Data required for the study was collected through a combination of focus group discussions, household survey and field tree inventories. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, analyses of variance and linear regression methods using statistical software for social sciences (SPSS version 20). In the study region, avocado is mainly grown as an integral component of the coffee- and enset-based agroforestry systems. The number of avocado trees owned by smallholder producers was related to district, sex of household head, age of household head, educational status, land holding size, pest and disease damage and access to extension services. Productivity of avocado was significantly (p < 0.05) different between production systems. The highest avocado fruit yield was observed from trees grown in the coffee and enset-based agroforestry systems. However, the smallholder producers complain that the yields of coffee and enset grown under avocado trees could be very low. The total height of avocado trees was significantly (p < 0.05) different across the different production systems. The mean heights of matured (21–25 years old) avocado trees were 17.57 ± 0.86 m (±SE; N = 20) under coffee-based agroforestry system and 14.93 ± 1.24 m when grown as individual trees around homes. Proper extension support is needed to disseminate improved production techniques: encompassing proper tree spacing, tree training, pruning, soil amendments, growing optimum number of trees for successful pollination and improved harvesting.

This paper uses two triple-hurdle models to analyse the determinants of Ethiopian rural households decisions in (1) milk production, butter marketing and volume of butter sales; and (2) milk production, purchased input use and intensity of purchased input use. Results are based on data collected from 5000 households and 497 rural communities in the highlands of Ethiopia. Availability of feed stands out as an important factor influencing household decision to engage in milk production, indicating the dire need to develop feed resources to promote dairy production in rural Ethiopia. Milk production in rural Ethiopia seems to have an interesting and complex gender dimension. While female-headed households are less likely to be engaged in milk production, perhaps because of resource limitations, they are more likely to manage their dairy farms intensively. Marketing costs matter in dairy production and marketing in rural Ethiopia, suggesting for the need to develop market infrastructures for both dairy outputs and inputs. Our results further show that participation in butter markets as sellers or the amount of butter sales do not respond to price signals, suggesting the need to understand the behavioural aspect of dairy marketing decision in rural Ethiopia. Acknowledgement :

In many developing countries like Ethiopia village poultry makes up a large part of the national poultry meat and egg production and plays important roles economically, nutritionally, and socio-culturally. Households in Ethiopia have not fully benefitted from the potential of village poultry as little attention is given to the sub-sector from research and development efforts. The little research and development efforts tend to explore improvements largely via technical approaches by overlooking the socio-economic and institutional context under which the producers operate. This study aims to identify the technical, household, infrastructural and institutional drivers or barriers that influence village poultry production and its productivity in Ethiopia. Across sectional survey of 5004 households was undertaken in the four highland regions of Ethiopia. Descriptive statistics and econometric tools such as probit and Heckman's two stage models and their marginal effects were used to analyze the status and driving factors of village poultry production and productivity. Distance to all weather roads decreased flock size and the probability of poultry ownership. Contact with development agents and participation in training increased flock size and the probability of purchasing inputs and adopting commercial breeds. Flock size and ownership of commercial breeds raised households' likelihood of purchasing poultry input. Our results indicate that research and development efforts have to improve not only production performance through better use of inputs and technologies but also have to equally emphasize increasing the benefits for smallholder producers by providing infrastructural and institutional support to proper target households.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that affect farmer’s decision to allocate credit for livestock production. The results are expected to contribute to the understanding of what motivates smallholders to allocate credit to agricultural production in general and livestock production in particular. A better understanding of the farmers’ behavior in allocating credit for livestock would provide useful information for project implementers and financial institutions that work with small-scale livestock producers. Design/methodology/approach A cross-section data set collected in 2014 from 5,000 households and 497 rural communities in the major highland regions of Ethiopia is examined. The authors developed a conceptual framework for credit allocation decision. Percentiles, means, and standard deviation as well as t, χ2 and Fisher’s exact tests for association and Cramer’s V measure for strength of association have been used to describe the status of farmer’s access to credit and analyze credit utilization, while a three-stage probit model with double sample selection is used to identify factors that affect household’s decision to allocate credit for livestock production. Findings After controlling for potential selection biases, sex and literacy status of household head, land size, wealth and access to livestock centered extension service are found to have a statistically significant effect on farmers’ decision to allocate credit to livestock production. The results showed female-headed households, wealthy farmers, farmers with small plot of land and farmers that have access to livestock centered extension services are more likely to allocate the credit for livestock production. The results suggest that policies aimed at improving access to credit together with access to livestock focused extension service are more effective in increasing livestock production. Research limitations/implications The study’s findings should be viewed with perspective and caution, as only households with excess demand for credit were the subject of the research. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it is one of a very few empirical studies that try to identify factors that affect households credit allocation to livestock in systematic way that removed confounding effects using three-stage probit models. Given the emphasis on financial constraints in livestock development, new empirical insights on household credit allocation are essential to better inform development interventions. Second, the analysis relies on a comprehensive data set that represents the major agricultural system of the country.

This paper analyses factors that influence Ethiopian households' decisions to produce and market small ruminants using a triple-hurdle econometric model. The model integrates production, market position and volume of sales, allowing us to make inferences relating to the study population. The results are based on a dataset collected from 5 000 households and 497 rural communities in the highlands of Ethiopia. Our results show that, among other things, younger household heads, male-headed households, and households with relatively higher labour supply are more likely to engage in small-ruminant production. Flock size is an important determining factor of market participation and volume of sales. In addition, in areas where small-ruminant production is likely, market access stands out as an important determinant of household market position. Finally, our results show that the small-ruminant sub-sector is price nonresponsive, suggesting that households liquidate their animals in need of cash, not necessarily to maximise profit.

Irrigated fodder production can be vitalised as a useful strategy to sustainably intensify subsistence livestock production owned and managed by smallholders and to diversify farm income through linkages to commercial livestock systems. However, uncertainty about the production and market environment of such a non-traditional commodity can be a major hindrance against commercialisation and scaling out of irrigated fodder production. This makes ex-ante analysis of profit portfolio and its determinants necessary in order to improve farmers' investment and risk management decisions. Using a stochastic approach to farm profit analysis to account for business uncertainty, this paper simulated and compared the level and distribution of profit that smallholders in Koga irrigation scheme (Ethiopia) can generate from irrigated Rhodes grass seed and from traditional irrigated crops. The finding shows the absolute and comparative profitability of irrigated Rhodes grass seed. Though 0.19 times less profitable than irrigated onion, irrigated Rhodes grass seed is 4 times, 1.27 times, and 1.25 times more profitable than irrigated barley, irrigated wheat, and irrigated tomato, respectively. Profit from the commodity is robust to adverse business conditions such as yield reduction, cost increase, and price reduction, assuring optimism about positive financial returns from investments to expand production. Long-term business viability can be improved and farm income further stabilised through interventions targeted at fodder agronomy to enhance crop yield and at value chain development to improve market linkages and output price.

Chicken production in West Gojjam zone was characterized by using indigenous chicken with low input-output level. Despite its diverse socio economic role for smallholder farmers, production and productivity of village chicken was very low. As the result, chicken producers were not benefited from the sector. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of characterizing chicken rearing practice, flock dynamics and determining the off-take rate of village chicken production system. It was conducted in West Gojjam Zone of Ethiopia. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select representative respondents. A total of 500 farmers were interviewed. In the study area, the average numbers of local and exotic chickens kept by smallholder producers were 8.44+0.42 and 0.49+0.10chicken, respectively with the overall mean 8.93+0.42chicken. The flock structure was highly dominated by young chicks (3.82+0.28) and hen (2.47+0.09). The average chicken migrated into the flock per household per annum was 10.32+ 0.80 birds, whereas the outflow from the flock was 16.62+0.85birds. The number of chicken was higher at the middle of the year than the beginning and end of the year. On average, 2.9+0.12 layer chickens were kept per household. From which, in average 307.2+ 20.2 eggs were produced from local and improved breed in a year. Marketing in the district and PA were important marketing places for egg and live birds with the off-take rate of 34.94%. To improve chicken production in the study area, adaptive improved chicken breed should be introduced. Strategic vaccination, semi scavenging practices should be introduced and promoted in order to reduce chicken mortality. Capacity building through training and intensive follow up should also be made in order to enhance the level of awareness of smallholders on improved small scale poultry keeping practices.

In Ethiopia, the public extension service has a key role in the introduction and promotion of value chain development interventions to transform the rural sector. The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project conducted a household baseline survey to assess the current status of the public extension service from a market oriented development perspective. A total of 2502 (2025 male- and 477 female-headed households), randomly selected from LIVES intervention peasant associations (PAs), were interviewed. Data were analysed using descriptive analysis. The survey results show that, while extension services in Ethiopia have recently focused on the production of high value commodities, advice, training and linkage facilitation support on market information, storage, processing and marketing of value chain commodities is not generally strong. The use of innovative extension service delivery methods and tools for market oriented agricultural development has not yet been widely used in Ethiopia. Keywords: market oriented extension, value chain development

This paper estimates technical inefficiency in milk production of smallholder dairy farmers in the highlands of Ethiopia and identifies factors associated with the observed inefficiency using a stochastic frontier production function approach. The analysis utilizes cross-section data collected from 1277 farmers. The result indicates a mean technical efficiency of 55%, suggesting sizeable technical inefficiency in milk production. The results further show that household wealth, education level and access to markets and institutions are the main drivers of technical efficiency in dairy production. Evidently by improving smallholder access to market and institutions as well as investing on adult education, it is possible to bring considerable gain in milk production.

Both young people and women contribute significantly to agricultural production in the African continent, although these contributions are not usually explicitly recognized in official statistics and documents. In Ethiopia, women traditionally have been subject to sociocultural and economic discrimination that resulted in fewer economic, educational and social opportunities than men. The traditional development approaches that view the household as a unitary decision-making entity and the assumption that interventions targeted at the household head would trickle down to household members is the foundation of the exclusion of women and young people. In particular, women in married households are usually excluded from development interventions. Many governments in Africa have now started to take policy measures to recognize and enhance the contributions of young people and women in economic growth on the continent. Similarly, there seems to be strong political commitment in Ethiopia to ensure inclusive economic growth that will result in better gender equality and benefit young people. This working paper summarizes the lessons from the experiences of the Improving productivity and market success for Ethiopian smallholders and Livestock and irrigation value chains for Ethiopian smallholders projects in inclusive value chain development aimed at benefiting women and young people. It mainly focuses on the trajectories of the two projects in reaching out to women and young people in order to increase their access to resources, innovation, technologies and knowledge which could consequently improve their inclusion in and benefits from value chain development and governance. Experiences from innovative extension methods for inclusion are discussed. The paper makes recommendations for policy and development practice to improve benefits to women and young people from development interventions. 1 Value chain opportunities for women and young people in livestock production in Ethiopia: Lessons learned