Determinants of cassava production and its marketing channel efficiency - an assessment

Cassava production has got an international attention and currently different organizations and foundations are involved in research and development activities. But cassava producers in the study area are facing different challenges in production system and marketing for cassava products. Hence, the main focus of this research paper is to see the determinants of cassava production and its marketing channel efficiency in the study area. Both primary and secondary data sources were used to address the objectives and the primary data was collected from 181 sample farmers drown from three cassava producer rural villages using multi-stage sampling technique. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to summarize the data. Furthermore, inferential statistics like multiple linear regression model was employed to identify the determinants of cassava production. The study results indicate that the production trend of cassava in the area has been increasing time to time. The regression analysis results also disclosed that educational level, access to agricultural input, age of the farmers, pests attack, extension visit, fertility of the soil, farm size, irrigation, experience and family size were the variables that significantly influence households cassava production. It is also found that direct sale (producers sell their cassava products to the final consumers) brings the biggest price share (35%) for the farmers and it is the best channel to increase efficiency and the wealth of farmers. The challenging factors influencing the cassava producers in the study area are shortage of farm landholding, marketing chain efficiency, soil fertility, high population pressure, and drought etc. Therefore, the researcher recommends that the government, non-government, cooperatives and agricultural research centers should support the cassava producer farmers by giving improved variety and promote the non-producer farmers to participate in cassava production and create market chain in the study area.