IPMS Theses
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Item An assessment on the role of women in agriculture in Southern Nation Nationality People’s Region: The case of Halaba Special Woreda, Ethiopia(Thesis, 2012-06-15) Tegegne, M.The study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the role of women in agriculture in Halaba Woreda. Based on the out put of this study, the contribution levels of women were identified. The study result showed that women’s contributes 46% of labor to agricultural activities. Men, boys and girls also participate in agricultural activities. However, women’s work in the agricultural activities documented as marginal and they have been considered more as consumers than as producers. More than 89% of the Halaba population is residing in the rural parts of the Woreda and half of the population is women. According to the study analyzed that rural women spend their time in productive activities, which directly benefit their families and society in economic terms. The study showed that the average day for a rural women in Halaba involves food processing, water and fuel wood collection, assisting family farm, marketing and labor exchange for community services. Also the level of participation as women’s labor is more participating in agricultural activities, community services and contributing more in securing their household members food demand than other household members do. But women receive no remuneration for their labor, no monetary or maternal gains and no benefits in leisure time and improved living conditions. Women suffer from discriminatory practices that prevent them from accessing land in the same way and extent as men. As such, men control land and women gain access to land mainly through either inheritance, their male relatives or in that of their husband. . In general the contributing factors that influences women’s role in agriculture depends upon the women’s dependence on their husband. The other one is illiteracy, ignorance, low socio-economic status and traditional religious and cultural dominance and low political participation in the community. Also, in the study area there were few supporting organizations to promote women in agricultural activities and empower them. However, those that do not have a specific gender focus, but undertake some single or combined gender –related activities which are generally mother and child care, nutrition, water, girls’ education, women savings and credit facilities. The study analyzed that those few NGOs and government organizations that have attempted to tackle gender issues have encountered serious problems of resource availability, limited technical capacity, poor organization and lack of coordination, which have made it impossible to streamline their gender concerns in a concrete way into effective programmed interventions.Item Socio-economic impact of forage development on farm households livelihood in Mieso District, West Hararghe Zone, Oromia National Regional State(Thesis, 2012-01-15) Ahmed, I.Livestock and their products are becoming an important market-oriented commodity in Ethiopia. This study aims at shedding some lights on the ex-post potential socio-economic impact of improved forage development on farm households’ livelihood improvement. It does so through an empirical investigation of the impact of forage technology adoption on income, health, education, reduced job burden of women, saving of school time of children and nutritional status of 120 sampled farm households in Mieso district. As technology adoption is randomly assigned, the study used non-parametric ‘p-score matching analysis’ in assessing the ‘causal’ effect of the improved forage technology on farm-households’ livelihood. This method was checked for covariate balancing test with standard bias, t-ratio and joint-significance level test. Descriptive and econometric methods are used to analyze the data. Of the 120 sampled households, improved forage technology users were 60 and the rest were non-users. Descriptive analyses of t-test and test results shows the existence of significant mean and proportion difference between users and non-users in terms of education, active labor force, land size, fattening experience, livestock ownership, information accesses, participation in demonstration days and accesses to credit which shows the descriptive results improved forage have positive impacts on outcome of the studies income, women work time, children study time, health and education expense at 1% significant level, while nutrition status at 5% significant level. Also market-oriented livestock product sold Milk, Butter, Cattle, and Shoat affects at 1% level, while Honey and Camel at 5% and 10% percent level. Propensity score matching analysis also show that adoption of improved forage technology have significantly and positively affected by active labor force, information accesses, fattening experience, demonstration day, and livestock holding while age, family size and market distances have a significant negative effect. The sensitivity analysis also shows that the impact result estimates are insensitive to unobserved selection bias. Overall, the adoption of improved forage on socio-economic livelihood have significant positive impact on the households’ total income, income from livestock sale, reducing women job burden, saving school time of children and expenditures on health status. The thesis finally discusses these results in detail and draws some recommendations. So it is recommended to scale up and out the adoption of the improved forage technology to other farmers in the district as well to other regions with similar socioeconomic characteristics.Item Market chain analysis of teff and wheat production in Halaba Special Woreda, southern Ethiopia(Thesis, 2011-04-15) Urgessa, M.This research attempted to analyze the market chain of teff and wheat in Halaba with specific objective of assessing the structure-conduct-performance of teff and wheat marketing, the various marketing channels, the institutional support services of extension, input supply, and credit and analyzing the determinants of teff and wheat supply. Primary data were collected from160 teff and wheat producers and 43 grain traders based on two stage random sampling method. Multiple linear regression model was employed to estimate the determinants of teff and wheat supply. The results of the study indicated that out of the total teff and wheat produced by sample farmers, 86.2% of teff and 49.2% of wheat were marketed. Urban assemblers, regional wholesalers and regional retailers bought 40%, 37.4% and 16.5% the teff marketed respectively. Likewise, wholesalers and urban assemblers bought 45.1% and 43.8% of wheat marketed respectively. Alaba Qulito sample market was inefficient, characterized by oligopolistic market structure. The major barrier to enter into the market was shortage of capital. Licensing and years of trading experience did not hinder entry into teff and wheat trading activities. Moreover, the markets were overwhelmed by information asymmetry with low degree of market transparency. Although trading of teff and wheat is profitable across all sample farmers and traders, problems like oligopolistic market structure and information asymmetry made the trading business uncompetitive and inefficient. Among the different variables hypothesized to determine the supply of teff and wheat, econometric result showed that four variables such as quantity produced, access to market information, access to extension service and sex of the household head significantly affected the volume of teff supplied to the market. Moreover, three variables namely quantity produced, access to credit and price of other (pepper) crop significantly affected volume of teff supplied to the market. As hypothesised, all variables took a sign as expected. The study recommends providing policies that improve teff and wheat production capacity by identifying new technologies create stable demand for surplus production would enhance farmers’ decision in marketable surplus. Strengthening Institutions that convey reliable and timely market xv information required by all market participant. Strengthening the existing extension system through training in a way to serve grassroots level producers in all aspect is important. The number of farmers and traders who accessed credit is very limited; therefore, financial institutions should design a mechanism to address the challenges of financial access to smallholder farmers and traders. Eventually, policies that strengthen the bargaining power of cooperative are vital in order to reduce the market inefficiency created due to oligopolistic nature of market structure.Item Comparative feedlot performance of Washera and Horro sheep fed different roughage to concentrate ratio(Thesis, 2012-01-15) Gizachew, A.A study was conducted using thirty male intact Washera and Horro sheep (15 from each breed) with initial body weight (BW) of 19.01±0.37 kg (mean ± SD) to compare feed intake, digestibility, growth performance and carcass characteristics of the animals fed diet containing hay:concentrate ratio of 70:30 (L), 60:40 (M), 50:50 (H). The concentrate contained 30:70 (noug seed cake:wheat bran). Animals of each breed were blocked based on initial BW and were randomly assigned to the dietary treatments. The experimental design was therefore a 2*3 factorial in RCBD. The experiment had a 90 days feeding and 7 days digestibility trials and carcass evaluation at the end. The crude protein (CP) contents of the three diets were 13.7, 15.5 and 18.1% for L, M and H, respectively. Daily dry matter (DM) and CP intakes were only affected by diet (P < 0.05). Intake of DM (720, 812 and 859 g/day (SEM = 22.9)) was lower for L, but was similar (P > 0.05) for M and H. CP intake (105, 130 and 160 g/day (SEM = 3.5) was in the order of L < M < H (P < 0.05). The apparent digestibility coefficients of DM and CP were unaffected (P > 0.05) by genotype, diet or their interaction and were above 60%. Average daily body weight gain (ADG) were significantly impacted only by diet (P < 0.05), and ADG (37, 46, 54 (SEM = 4.0)) was greater (P < 0.05) for H than L with value for M being similar to L and H. Effect of genotype and diet x genotype interaction failed to be significant (P > 0.05) in all the main carcass parameters measured. Diet had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on hot carcass weight. Hot carcass weight (7.6, 8.2, 8.8 kg (SEM = 0.32)) was lower (P < 0.05) for L than H with value for M being similar to L and H. In conclusion this study highlighted that Washera and Horro sheep had a similar performance under the feeding regime used in this study, and it appeared that both breeds perform better in the diet containing the highest level of concentrate used in the current study.Item Market chain analysis of fruits for Gomma Woreda, Jimma Zone, Oromia National Regional State(Thesis, 2011-08-15) Tadesse, A.In support of stimulating growth, economic development, food security and alleviating poverty, the analysis of the marketing performance of fruits plays an important role in an ongoing or future fruit development plan. In spite of the policy options provided by the Ethiopian government, there is very little empirical evidence on the fruit marketing system to design appropriate policies for its improvement of fruit marketing in the study area. Therefore, this study was aimed at analyzing the market chain of fruit for Gomma woreda, Jimma Zone of Oromia National Regional State with the specific objectives of identifying the major fruit marketing channels; quantifying the costs and margins for key fruit marketing channels and identifying factors influencing fruit marketable supply in the study area. In order to attain these objectives the study made use of primary and secondary data. The data were generated by individual interview schedules and focus group discussions using pretested semi structured questionnaires and checklists respectively. This was supplemented by secondary data collected from different published and unpublished sources. Structure, Conduct and Performance (SCP) approach was used to evaluate avocado and mango market and Multiple Linear Regression Model was fitted to identify factors influencing the marketable supply of avocado and mango in the study area. Structure of the market indicates that licensing and years of avocado and mango trade experience did not hinder entry into avocado and mango trade, but capital, education and market information were barriers to enter into the trade. Analysis of marketing costs and margins revealed that processors (juice house) received the highest (88.73%) marketing margin and producers received the least (11.27%) marketing margins in avocado and mango trade business. Based on regression model, the study has identified the main determinants of avocado and mango quantity supply. Quantity of avocado produced, experience, education and price of avocado in the previous year are factors that significantly affect quantity of avocado supplied to the market positively at 1%, 5%, and at 10% level, respectively while lack of market access affects the supply negatively at 10% level. Similarly quantity of mango produced, education and extension contact are factors that significantly affect quantity of mango supplied to the market positively. Therefore one of the most important variables influencing the market supply of avocado and mango is avocado and mango quantity produced due to this, extension work should focus on encouraging farmers to participate in avocado and mango production. This particularly includes, capacity building, technological applications, improved extension and plant breeding activities, there is also a need to increase new varieties that are disease resistant and disseminate these technologies to potential areas. The findings suggests that, effective market information service has to be established to provide accurate and timely market information to farmers and traders on current supply of avocado and mango output, demand and prices at national and regional levels. Infrastructural development is also a key to support the sub-sector. In this arena, emphasis should be given to improved storage and transportation system, offering credit and other services to improve effective production and marketing of avocado and mango.Item The impact of input and output market development intervention of the IPMS Project: The case of Meiso Woreda, Oromiya National Regional State, Ethiopia(Thesis, 2011-06-15) Abebe, T.Improving Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian farmers’ (IPMS) is a project that is being implemented by ILRI at 10 pilot learning woredas in the country to enhance market oriented production so that the country can overcome the problems of poorly developed agricultural production and marketing. Even though the project has been in place for over five years its impact has not been evaluated. Therefore, this study evaluates the impact of input and output market development interventions of the project on institutional and organizational aspect of markets, input use and productivity, total net income, marketed surplus and market orientation of the participant households. For quantitative analysis both program participant and non participant respondents were drawn and cross-sectional survey data were collected from 180 households in Mieso woreda. A propensity score matching method was applied to assess the impact of the project on outcome variables of the treated households. Results show that the market development interventions have a significant and positive impact on the outcome variables measured using different indicators. The intervention has resulted in positive and significant impact on level of input use for onion and goat production of the treated households. Participants earned more total net income on average from commodities of intervention over non-participants and also found to be more market oriented and supplied more of their produce to market over non-participants. However, some outcome variable indicators such as input use for cattle, net income from goat, land allocated for onion and proportion of goat allocated for fattening by participant households are positive but statistically insignificant. The sensitivity analysis also show that results are not sensitive to unobserved selection bias and were robust to the dummy cofounder. These results reveal that market development interventions of such kind play an important role for the overall transformation and development activities of the country.Item Changes in the value chain of dairy development in response to integrated extension interventions: The case of Atsbi-Wemberta District, Northern Ethiopia(Thesis, 2010-11-15) Weldemariam, D.A field study was conducted to assess the changes in response to the integrated interventions along the value chain of dairy production-marketing systems and to draw lessons for scaling out and up purposes. The changes associated with the interventions were systematically captured using household level surveys, key informant interviews and secondary sources in Atsbi-Womberta district, northern Ethiopia. The study was mainly based on a randomly sampled 100 dairy producers: 50 households with crossbred dairy cows and 50 households with local breed dairy cows. In the survey, key parameters and indicator variables that can indicate the changes in dairy performance along the value chain framework were collected and analyzed. Results show that the number of improved dairy cow breeds increased by about 5.56 fold and that of beneficiary households by 5.59 fold in 2009 compared to 2004 in the district. Similarly, the gross annual income of improved crossbred dairy cows beneficiaries households increased by 137% and that of local dairy cow breeds by 83% in 2009 compared to that of 2004. The changes in increased dairy productivity and gross income could attribute to introduction of improved dairy technologies (crossbred cows, feed development and health services), access to improved input supply, credit and market information. Most importantly, the changes attributed to the changes in skills and knowledge of dairy farmers on effective use of information on emerging market opportunities and response to challenges. In the district, the major changes have been in the shift from traditional diary management system where products mainly destined for home consumption to market oriented dairy husbandry. Under business type dairy husbandry, farmers’ capacity to use emerging dairy xiii market opportunities effectively and cope with emerging challenges need to be strengthened. Finally, the results clearly demonstrated that the link of improved dairy development to market brings immediate benefit to farmers and also enhanced the development of improved dairy farms in return. Thus, the lessons drawn from improved dairy development along the value chain framework need to be scale up and out within and outside the district.Item Factors affecting adoption of improved haricot bean varieties and associated agronomic practices in Dale Woreda, SNNPRS(Thesis, 2011-06-15) Mulugeta, A.Haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the most important food legumes of Ethiopia and it is considered as the main cash crop and the least expensive source of protein for the farmers in many lowlands and mid altitude of the country. Low production and productivity, which are mainly associated with poor adoption of improved technologies and poor marketing system, were among the major problems. Adoption of improved technologies is one of the most promising ways to reduce food insecurity in Ethiopia. However, the adoption and dissemination of these technologies is constrained by various factors. The aim of this study was to examine factors affecting adoption and intensity of adoption of improved haricot bean varieties and associated agronomic practices in Dale Woreda, Sidama zone of SNNPR. In the area, haricot bean is an important crop, which serves as a source of food and cash. A total of 150 sample households (131 male and 19 female) selected from 5 kebeles of the Woreda were interviewed using structured interview schedule. Qualitative data were collected using group discussion and field observation. Data analysis was done with the help SPSS 17; mainly Chi-square test, F-test Cramer’s V, and Pearson Correlation. Tobit econometrics model was employed using STATA11. The results of the econometric model indicated that the relative influence of different variables on probability and intensity of adoption of improved haricot bean production Thus, ,sex of house hold head, , attending training on improved haricot bean production, attending field day programs, conducting demonstration, access to improved seed credit and membership of seed multiplication group were positively and significantly influenced where as market distance negatively influenced adoption and intensity of adoption of improved haricot bean varieties and associated agronomic practices. Farmers’ evaluation and selection criteria of improved haricot bean varieties in the study area in order of importance were high yielding, market demand, price advantage, time of maturity, grain color, grain size, disease resistance and storability. Based on these criteria Nasir variety ranks first and dimtu variety ranks second. In addition, majority of farmers in the study area used seed and fertilizer rates below research and extension recommendations. Farmers’ deviation from recommended package practices was found partly due to inadequate extension service, high cost of fertilizer and also lack of finance. The overall findings of the study underlined the high importance of extension service provision to improve farmers’ access to information and extension advices to address the recommended agronomic practices practically, facilitating access to credit and improving market condition, Attention has to be given to women household headed to participate in improved haricot bean production, Therefore development interventions should give emphasis to improvement of such institutional support systems to increase adoption and productivity of the crop.Item Practices and challenges on economic empowerment of rural women in Halaba Special Woreda, SNNPR, Ethiopia(Thesis, 2011-07-15) Hassen, B.Women’s economic empowerment helps to insure gender equality and the well being of nations. When women become economically empowered and get their own source of income definitely they insure the basic needs of the family (Raesser, Blumberg 2006). The purpose of the study was to assess the practice and challenges on economic empowerment of rural women in Halaba Special Woreda in S.N.N.P.R of Ethiopia. Standing from this objective, the study attempted to answer the basic questions of what are the factors that contributed to women’s economic dependency, the effort exerted by the government to empower women’s economically and the challenges in the implementation process. The study was conducted using descriptive study design. The total sample size of the study was 353 respondents from 6 kebeles of Halaba Special Woreda. After the representative sample size is determined using Cochran’s (1997) formula, simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques were used to select the sample from the source population. The data collection was done through questionnaire for quantitative survey and interview for qualitative survey. After the data has been collected it’s analyzed supporting with tables and figures. The Challenges and practices on economic empowerment of rural women in Halaba Special Woreda were illiteracy rate among women’s, cultural influence, limited participation in decision making process, having limited access of land and other properties, inadequacy of organization that focus on women’s economic empowerment to deliver the needed services for credit availability were the main findings of the study . Even though, the government declared equality of property right for women, most of them in the study area were not entitled to land.Item Market change analysis of honey production: In Atsbi Wemberta district, eastern zone of Tigray National Region State(Thesis, 2009-06-15) Abebe, A.Item Item Access and utilization of agricultural knowledge and information by women dairy farmers: The case of Ada’a District, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia(Thesis, 2010-04-15) Kuru, J.Nevertheless, the significant role of women in dairy production, processing and marketing, so far no systematic study has been undertaken with regard to their access and utilization of knowledge and information and the factors influencing the same. Specifically the research attempts to answer four important questions: i).What is the sources of knowledge and information, inputs and services for women dairy farmers? ii) How far women dairy farmers are able to access and utilize the available knowledge and information? iii) What are the constraints and opportunities for creating enhanced knowledge and information flows amongst women dairy farmers? And iv) What are the factors influencing the access to and utilization of knowledge and information? Four stage sampling procedures were used in which both non-random and random sampling procedures were followed to stratify dairy production systems into peri-urban and rural systems, selection of two kebeles from each sub system and120 respondents. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from primary and secondary source. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics like frequency, mean, percentage, standard deviation, chi-square,t-test and F-test while persons’ correlation and multiple linear regression analysis, were used to test the magnitude of the relationship and influence between dependent and independent variables. The study has investigated that neighbors and friends, public institutions, NGOs, cooperative and private sector involved in the activities of knowledge and information dissemination, input supply and provision of services for smallholder dairy farmers. With regard to access and utilization of knowledge/information, variations were observe among the sub systems, where the majority or 92.31and 61.5% of rural producers belonged to low level of overall access and utilization, respectively. In the study area, opportunities like rapid urbanization and population increase, availability of services, strong linkage, favorable national policy, technological options and farmer’s willingness to pay exists for achieving productivity improvement and market-orientation in smallholder dairy systems. Furthermore, the research identified feed scarcity, poor breeding, veterinary and credit services and access to markets as supply-side constraints while high marketing costs, highly seasonal price fluctuations and safety and quality concerns are demand-side constraints. Extension participation, family education, Medias, innovation proneness and cosmpoliteness were also found to be significant in explaining dependent variables of access and utilization of dairy knowledge and information while livestock holding and distance from market had negative influence. In summary, in the context of Ada’a, provision of technical and advisory services on dairy production were not biased towards MHHs, rather the services are lacking for the livestock sub-sector in general and dairy in particular. Therefore, purposeful focus has to be given on knowledge and information sources by strengthening pluralistic advisory service delivery mechanism in a coordinated and networked way. In addition, by considering the significant explanatory variables, ensuring the transfer of knowledge and services towards smallholder dairy systems for improving access to and utilization of knowledge and information among women dairy farmers in the study area is important.Item Performance modeling of adaptive congestion control mechanisms for internet traffic(Thesis, 2008-09-15) Tsegaye, D.The need for access integrated applications such as video, voice and data with a defined quality of service parameter over the Internet by the users are currently increasing rapidly. Yet there are challenges on the Internet backbone to operate at its capacity to assure efficient service delivery to the users. One of the major challenges is called congestion collapse which results in issues like high packet delay, high packet loss and low packet throughput in the course of data transmission for various applications on the Internet. Now a day’s congestion prevention has become one of the most critical issues that must be confronted by the users. It is also a major challenge to researchers in the field of performance modelling. So far different researches have been carried out and remarkable achievements have been made in controlling congestion collapse and achieving minimum packets loss probability in both Single and Double Threshold analysis leading to Step and Linear reduction respectively. However, as it has been suggested by the researchers, improvements are still needed to achieve better performance results in this regard. The intentions of this project are: First formulating a new analytical model on different packet dropping function based on the previous model. Second derivations of performance metrics such as mean queue length, throughput, response time and probability of loss equations. Third validate the accuracy of the new analytical model through extensive experiment in MATLAB program. And to find out optimum packet dropping function which capture minimum packet loss probability and contribute to the research work in performance modelling. The results of the analysis show that exponential function is an optimum function which achieved lower probability of packet loss compared with others functions when the values of the threshold are increasing. And also a reasonable increment have been achieved in throughput, average queue length, and average queuing delay as expected with a change in threshold values.Item Opportunities and challenges for private service delivery: The case of private crop protection and community animal health workers’ service delivery in Alaba Special District, Southern Ethiopia(Thesis, 2010-10-15) Muke, M.CAHWs and PCPS are the two community-based private services operating in Alaba since three years. However, there was no systematic assessment of this initiatives have been made to learn lessons and develop a strategy for scaling successful experience. This research was initiated to fill this gap. Specifically the research attempted to address four important questions: i) What are the challenges and opportunities for emergence and expansion of these services? ii) What are the extent of service coverage and commercial viability to providers? iii) How do the private service providers perceive the entrance and expansion of service delivery? iv) Why some farmers use privately provided services and others don’t? The key findings of research are i) the providers are different in their supply capacity. Although the PCPS providers were relatively better capacitated with basic equipments, CAHWs are lacking the minimum critical facilities for primary animal health care provision. The providers have also perceived many opportunities yet specific to each service. Constraints perceived are also different for each service and many of them are non-technical, but are issue of policies and institutional challenges for both services and require service- specific policy and institutional arrangement to promote the service delivery system; ii) PCPS service coverage has shown the dominance of herbicide service than that of pesticide as well as pre-harvest service coverage than that of post-harvest. In CAHWs, the coverage is cattle dominated than other species with focus of antibiotic treatment than other services. Overall, service coverage is an indicator of the performance of service provider. Analysis of financial viability of the service to providers has also showed its viability even if the current costs of chemical and drugs increased by 14 and 10% for CAHWs and PCPS respectively; iii) The PCPS better satisfied the nearby PA users, whereas in CAHWs service the far PA users were better satisfied with accessibility and effectiveness of the service; and iv) The survey has also revealed that majority of users are willing to pay the said charge if it will improve their income as farmers and empower them financially. The findings imply: i) the effective demand for herbicide than pesticide and confirms the cereal crop domination of the district than cash crop production; ii) the difference in performance of providers in respective PAs and effective demand for CAHWs and PCPS in far and near PAs, respectively; iii) The proportion of those who perceived the current CAHWs charge is lower are greater than that of PCPS. This implies these users might have satisfied by the benefit they derived from CAHWs service; and iv) An increase in income is an issue of ability to pay for services. The key recommendations to seize opportunities & address challenges include: i) For the future, the providers have to focus on existing opportunities at hand and should explore effectively; ii) In response to the challenges identified, it is recommended to develop supportive services and enabling policies and institutional arrangements; iii) In order to avoid unfair competition, enforcement mechanism is vital regarding licensing and policing. PCPS is quite new, needs service standards and guidelines; iv) the service delivery should go beyond mere increase in yields into more of income generating schemes and market facilities for users in order to sustain their income and this is an important condition need to be attached to WTP.Item Assessment of bread wheat production, marketing and selection of N-efficient bread wheat (Tritium aestivum L.) varieties for higher grain yield and quality in North Western Ethiopia(Thesis, 2010-05-15) Bayeh, B.The study was conducted in Adet Agricultural Research Center (AARC) and Bure distict with the objectives of assessment of bread wheat production, marketing systems and selection of N-efficient bread wheat varieties. A survey was used to collect data on bread wheat production & marketing systems. Ten bread wheat varieties with two N levels were evaluated under rain fed conditions using a randomized complete block design with three replications over two locations. Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference (p<0.01) among treatments for grain yield, agronomic, quality and Nitrogen use efficiency traits. Estimates of phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation at Adet indicated variability for number of tillers per plant (19.9, 11.5) and septoria (30.7, 24.5), respectively. The highest phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation was scored for septoria (84.4, 47.1), grain yield (30.8, 14.4), total grain nitrogen (55.9, 39.5), total straw nitrogen (38.7, 22.4) and number of tillers per plant (37.2, 18.1) at Bure. Estimation of phenotypic correlation coefficient among traits at Adet indicated that there was significant correlation between thousand seed weight (r=0.33) with grain yield. Spike length was negatively correlated with grain yield(r=-0.13). Plant height exhibited a positive significant association with thousand seed weight (r=0.40) and biomass yield (r=0.34). Nitrogen use efficiency for yield (r=0.92) had positive and high correlation with nitrogen uptake efficiency. At Bure, plant height (r=0.18) and number of spikelets per spike (r=0.26) showed significant positive correlation with grain yield. Thousand seed weight showed significant negative correlation with grain protein content (r=-0.51) and gluten (r=-0.47). Grain yield (r=0.43) and biomass yield (r=0.42) showed significant positive correlation with hectoliter weight. Nitrogen uptake efficiency (r=0.9), nitrogen utilization efficiency (r=0.5), grain yield (r=0.8) and biomass yield (r=0.6) showed highly significant positive correlation with nitrogen use efficiency for yield. At Adet, Katar (6.9 t/ha), Senkegna (6.8 t/ha), Bobicho (6.7 t/ha), Gassay (6.5 t/ha) with higher N levels, and Kubsa (6.4 t/ha) at both N levels were top ranking varieties in grain yield. The highest grain protein was scored by Millennium (14.4 %), and Densa (14.1 %) at higher N levels. Katar (14.17) and Digalu had scored the highest nitrogen utilization efficiency. At Bure, Kubsa (4.67 t/ha) at recommended N level, Paven76 (4.52 t/ha), Bobicho (4.24 t/ha) at higher N level and Kubsa (4.22 t/ha) at recommended N level were the top ranking varieties in grain yield. Kubsa (12.63 %) at both N level and Katar (12.9 %) were scored the lowest grain protein content. Kubsa (37.25), Katar (36.99) at recommended N level and Gassay (36.86) at both N levels had scored highest the nitrogen utilization efficiency.Item Evaluation of Elite hot pepper varieties (Capsicum species) for growth, dry pod yield and quality under Jimma condition, South West Ethiopia(Thesis, 2011-03-15) Delelegn, S.A field experiment was conducted at two locations under Jimma condition, to investigate the performance of different varieties of hot pepper for growth, dry pod yield and quality, thereby, to recommend best adapting and high yielding variety (varieties) for the farmers in the study area. The study was conducted from October, 2009, to March, 2010, at JUCAVM experimental field and Seka chokorsa woreda(Kechema nursery site) under irrigated condition using nine hot pepper varieties ( Mareko Fana,Bako Local, Melka Zala, Weldele, Melka Shote, Oda Haro, Dube Medium, Dube Short) and one local (Gojeb Local) as a control. The experiment consisted of two factors (locations and varieties) and was laid out in a split plot arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The result of the study showed significant interactions between locations and varieties on days to 50% flowering, days to first harvest, mean number of flowers per plant, canopy diameter, mean number of branches (primary, secondary and territory), shoot and root dry weight (g); number of fruit per plant, number of seeds per fruit, mean seed weight per fruit, marketable, unmarketable and total yield(t/ha), fruit dry weight(g), pericarp thickness, fruit length and fruit diameter. As a result, the earliest variety to attain days to 50% flowering was Gojeb Local at Kechema site followed by Mareko Fana at both locations, The variety to attain shortest days to first harvest was recorded from variety Gojeb Local, while the highest number of fruits per plant was from Weldele at Kechema site. On the other hand the highest primary, secondary and tertiary branches were recorded from variety Welwdele at Kechema site.Similarly the thickest fruit size was attained from Mareko Fana at Kechema site, where as,the widest fruit diameter was recorded from Mareko Fana Bako Local, Dube Medium and Dube Short at Kechema site respectively. The highest marketable yield(t/ha) of hot peppers was recorded from Varieties Weldele, Mareko Fana, Dube Medium and Dube Short at JUCAVM and Kechema respectively, while the highest total yield (t/ha) was recorded from Weldele and Mareko Fana at both locations. The high yielding capacities were attributed to their early flowering and maturity, days to first harvest, high marketable and total yield, the dry weight content of the varieties as well as their reaction to disease. Since, the present study was done only for one season at two locations; it would be advisable to repeat the experiment at different locations using different entries of hot pepper in order to arrive at a sound conclusion.Item Adoption of improved sesame varieties in Meisso District, West Hararghe Zone, Ethiopia(Thesis, 2010-10-15) Gedefa, B.Achieving national food security and diversifying export earning agricultural commodity is one of the major challenges currently facing developing countries like Ethiopia. Oils crop in general and sesame crop in particular play a great role in improving household’s food security, increasing income for the local population and export earnings for the country. Despite the high production potential and the economic importance of the crop, sesame producers particularly small scale farmers did not economically much benefited from its production. Low production and productivity, which is mainly associated with poor adoption of improved technologies and poor marketing system, was among the major problems. To this end, the objectives of this study were: to assess the relative financial profitability of improved sesame varieties, to assess the perception of farmers about improved sesame varieties attributes and to explore the contribution of farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing to adoption decision and finally to determine the relative importance of the various factors associated with adoption of improved sesame varieties. For this study, a three stage of sampling procedure was employed to select the sample households. First, Meisso district was purposively selected. At the second stage, four PAs were randomly selected among sesame growers PAs using random sampling method. Finally, 140 sample respondents were selected from the sampling frame based on probability proportional to size of sesame growers (PPS) random sampling method. In this study, data were obtained from 140 randomly selected households through personal interview conducted by trained enumerators using pre-tested interview schedule and from group and individual discussions, as well as the researcher’s personal observations. In addition, secondary data were collected from relevant sources such as research, zonal and district office of agriculture and others. In order to describe and compare different categories of the sample units with respect to the desired characteristics, mean, standard deviation and percentage were computed. Furthermore, chi-square and an independent sample t-test were used to identify variables that vary significantly between adopters and non-adopter.Logistic regression (binary logit) analysis was used to identify the relative importance of the various factors associated with adoption of improved sesame varieties. The economic analysis using the partial budgeting method and price sensitivity analysis was also used to ascertain the profitability of the adopted improved sesame technologies. The result of the study indicated that about 42.9% of the sample respondents were adopters of the improved sesame varieties, while 57.1 % non- adopters.The survey result also revealed that knowledge/information from farmer to farmer knowledge sharing at their work and market place was found to exert a significant impact on the probability of improved sesame varieties adoption by farmers. This was due to the farmers perceived that the information is most relevant, trusted and frequently accessible for the farmers decision making to adopt improved sesame technology. Innovative farmers are not only as source of knowledge of technology but also they are the source of improved seed for the majority of the adopters in the study area.Results of the logistic regression analysis indicate that among ,18 xvi identified explanatory variables nine of them significantly influenced adoption of improved sesame varieties.Education,sex, family labor supply, livestock onwership,total farm income earned ,perception on varieties attributes, farmer to farmers knowledge sharing and experience in sesame crop production have associated singificantly and positively with adoption of improved sesame varieties.whereas,distance from market center has associated significantly but negatively. The partial budget results also indicate that improved sesame varieties was highly profitable as against local cultivars sesame .The overall finding of the study underlined the high importance of institutional support in the areas of extension service to insist farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing and market to enhance adoption of improved sesame varieties. There is also need to consider farmers’ views during the new sesame technology development, evaluation and dissemination process because farmer views help scientists to design, test and recommend new technologies in light of information about farmers’ criteria for usefulness of the innovation. Moreover, due attention and policy consideration has to be given by government to those significant variables which have a potential impact in determining farmer’s adoption decision in the study area.Item Marketing of Kabuli and Desi chickpeas by smallholder farmers in Eastern Shewa Zone(Thesis, 2011-01-15) Demissie, M.An understanding of the market for smallholder farmers’ crops can provide clues to the potential market for their crops. The main objective of this study was thus to analyze the marketing performance of Kabuli and Desi chickpeas in three districts of east Shewa zone. It investigated the socio-economic, demographic, and institutional factors and other marketing attributes that affect farm gate-prices, season price fluctuations and marketable surplus of chickpeas in the study areas. A sample of 700 randomly selected households was interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Secondary data from different sources were also used. Both descriptive and econometric methods were used to analyze the data. The conceptual and empirical evidence suggests that improving smallholder farmers’ awareness for the uptake of improved Kabuli varieties for which the marginal values of varieties are considerably high relative to the price of the inputs would improve farm-gate net returns and prices received by small producers. The marketable surplus will also be improved if farmers switch to production of improved varieties of Kabuli chickpeas. Supplementary production relation ship between crop and livestock enterprises was found to be one of the important solutions to alleviation of high price variability that reduces competitiveness of chickpea marketing. In addition to the crop and livestock supplementary enterprise relation ship, moving for off-farm income activities with out affecting negatively the crop and livestock farming was found another alternative to alleviation of the high price variability problems. The study, however, ascertains that smallholder farmers need to know not only how to produce but first need to know and learn how to identify preferable potential buyers that will enhance competitiveness of chickpea market.