Abstract

Pulse crops production and factors influencing the intensity market orientation were conducted in selected districts of southern Ethiopia. A total of 183 farmers were selected randomly and interviewed using structured schedule. The finding reveals that 73% of households produce haricot beans in the study areas on about 17.2% of total cultivated land. Out of the total produce of haricot bean close to 56% were sold. Next to haricot bean, chickpea is important pulse crop and is produced by 26.8% of the households. About 69.5% of total chickpea produce was sold indicating that chickpea is an even more important cash crop. The average level of market orientation index for haricot bean was 0.4 while that of chickpea 0.53, indicating moderate level of households market orientation. The Tobit estimation result show that household head education level, access to credit and land per capita positively influenced chickpea market orientation while being male head of a household and accesses to credit increased the predicted value of haricot bean market orientation. The key implication of this study is that interventions aimed at promoting market orientation of pulse crops should promote smallholder access to credit, human capital development and women empowerment.

Keywords:

Market orientation, pulses, smallholders, tobit,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.