DETERMINANTS OF MILK MARKET PARTICIPATION OF SMALL DAIRY FARMERS IN SULULTA TOWN IN OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Though Sululta town have potential for dairy production in Ethiopia, the majority of small dairy farmers could not get benefit from this sector due to the low market participation problem. Hence, this study was designed to examine the determents of milk market participation of small dairy farmers in Sululta town in Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Data from 95 sampled small dairy farmers were employeed and analyzed by using descriptive statistics and logit model. The result of the study showed that 55.75% of the sampled dairy farmers were participated in the milk market while 44.25% of them did not participate in the milk market at the time of this study. The model result shows that the likelihood of being participating in the milk market was higher among dairy farmers whose household head is educated, who owned a larger number of both cross breed and local cows, who produce a larger volume of milk per day, who have access to marketing information, who have access to dairy extension services, and dairy farmers who have market linkage. On the contrary, the likelihood of participating in the milk market was lower among dairy farmers who had higher household sizes and higher non-dairy income. From this it is concluded that demographic factors of the household head, economic factors of the household and institutional factors plays significance role for the small dairy farmers to partcipate in milk market in the study place. Thus, policy recommendations include policy action that promotes the formal education of the dairy farmers, strengthen dairy extension services, increases the volume of milk production via an increasing number of both cross and local breeding cows and policy action that enhance the accessibly of marketing information and market linkage are essential to encourage the market participation of the small dairy farmers in Suluta town.