Kassa Tarekegn Erekalo

The study extends the Theory of Planned Behaviour to explore the determinants of organic food consumption in the emerging urban market in India. It employs partial least-square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to study the direct and indirect effect of behavioural factors on the Indian consumer intention to buy (ITB) and actual buying behavior (ABB). The study shows that Perceived Behavioural Control, Environmental Concern and Consumer awareness are significant factors. Moderation analysis reveals that age and employment status are pivotal factors. These findings highlight that awareness campaigns, transparent labeling, and improved accessibility enhance organic food consumption in India.

Abstract Land fragmentation, particularly in irrigation systems, has emerged as a pervasive global event that profoundly shapes farmers’ decision-making. While land fragmentation has been widely studied, irrigated land fragmentation has received limited scholarly attention. Hence, this study aimed to identify key drivers and assess the level of land fragmentation among smallholder irrigators. Cross-sectional data were collected from 618 randomly selected households. Simpson index and Tobit model were used to assess the level and identify factors linked to land fragmentation, respectively. The Simpson index results show a moderate irrigated land fragmentation level of 38% in the study area. Tobit model results found that; household size, participation in agricultural commercial cluster, farm experience, machinery application, and distance from the nearest market were positively significant, whereas the amount of rented land, land certificate, and soil fertility status were negatively significant drivers of irrigated land fragmentation. Overall, policymakers and development practitioners should focus on these key drivers in designing effective rural development and irrigation policies. To do so would require enhancing family labor productivity; facilitating rental markets and transfer of small parcels; enhancing soil fertility beyond irrigated land; ensuring land certifications; promoting cluster farming initiatives beyond irrigated land; encouraging greater diversity of machinery and technology across different crops; and more robust sharing of experiences among farmers are crucial to keep irrigated land fragmentation at an optimal level.

This study examines how Danish farmers respond to two policy instruments, a tax on conventional farming and a market premium for climate-smart agriculture (CSA), when making land allocation decisions between conventional and CSA. Using a lab-in-the-field experiment with 251 farmers randomly assigned to control, tax, or premium treatments, we compare behavioral responses within the same context. Both instruments significantly increase CSA land allocation relative to the control group. On average, CSA allocation increases by approximately 5 ha (ha) under the tax treatment and 5.5 ha under the premium treatment, corresponding to increases of about 33% relative to the control mean. However, treatment effects vary across production systems: farmers already engaged in organic farming exhibit higher baseline CSA allocation but more moderate adjustments, whereas non-organic farmers show stronger behavioral adjustments. The findings suggest that a regulatory tax and a market-based premium influence land-use decisions and may address different adoption barriers across farmer groups, even when providing similar economic incentives. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for farmer heterogeneity and suggest that tailoring policy mixes to different production systems and sustainability orientations may enhance behavioral change toward agricultural sustainability.

Climate change poses a significant threat to Ghana’s cocoa sector, highlighting the need for resilient farming systems. Access to climate information is widely considered a critical enabler of resilience, yet empirical evidence specific to cocoa farmers remains limited. This study assesses the influence of climate information access on the resilience of cocoa farmers in Ghana’s Suhum District. Survey data from 388 farmers were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings reveal a significant information gap, with 70% of farmers lacking access to climate information. Mobile phone–based internet platforms are the dominant source of climate information. Farmers mainly receive information on routine farm practices rather than technical meteorological indicators. Institutional and socio-economic factors, especially access to credit and resident status, are the key drivers of climate information access. Farmers show moderate absorptive and adaptive capacity but strong transformative capacity. Access to climate information is the strongest predictor of farmers’ resilience, alongside education, income, farm size, FBO membership, and access to credit. It is recommended that extension officers intensify the dissemination of climate information during routine farm visits and group meetings, with particular attention to farmers who are currently excluded from information flows.

This chapter begins by defining what precision livestock farming (PLF) is and briefly reviewing its origins and development. It then takes a step back to review the broader context into which PLF fits, reviewing trends in livestock production, the increasingly complex challenges it faces as well as those related to understanding animals as highly-complex systems. It then provides an overview of developments in differing PLF technologies in addressing this width of challenges before assessing the issue of uptake of PLF technologies. The chapter aims to show the opportunities PLF offers to the animal production sector in offering solutions for the major challenges it faces.

ABSTRACT This study examines whether information about production methods and social norms can increase consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) a price premium for food produced using climate‐friendly farming methods. A randomized survey experiment was conducted with 1568 respondents across Denmark, Lithuania, and Spain, who were assigned to one of four experimental groups: a control group, a group receiving information on food production methods that can reduce climate impact, a group exposed to social norm messaging, and a group receiving combined interventions. Results show that while a substantial share of consumers expressed a positive WTP for climate‐friendly produced carrots and beef, the proportion declined rapidly as the premium increased. Moderate premiums were acceptable to many respondents but only about 10% were willing to pay a premium above 10%. The average WTP for carrots was 5% in the control group and increased by about 16% under the combined information and social norm intervention, indicating that the two strategies together modestly enhance premium acceptance. Very similar patterns were observed for beef. The effects of the treatments differed across demographic groups: respondents aged 41 or below were more responsive to social norms, while respondents above 41 reacted more to production method information. Overall, the findings suggest that leveraging production information with social‐norm message can modestly promote climate‐friendly produced food choices and offer useful guidance for designing tailored communication strategies.

The transition to climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is essential for sustainable food production, yet adoption varies widely due to differences in farmers' experiences, motivations, and constraints. Following an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework, this study examines the factors shaping future CSA adoption intentions among adopters and non-adopters. The findings reveal distinct adoption pathways. Positive attitudes toward CSA significantly influence adoption across all groups. Perceived behavioral control (PBC) enhances adoption intentions among non-adopters and CSA practice adopters, while social norms strongly motivate non-adopters to initiate adoption. Perceived compatibility with existing systems, values, and experiences drives the adoption of CSA practices, whereas perceived ease of use is more influential for CSA technology adoption. Additionally, economic motives primarily drive the continued adoption of CSA technologies, whereas non-economic motives encourage the continued implementation of CSA practices. Risk aversion significantly hinders CSA technology adoption. These insights underscore the importance of tailored strategies reflecting group-specific behavioral drivers. To enhance CSA adoption, peer-to-peer learning and advisory support are recommended for non-adopters, compatibility-driven awareness for practice adopters, and economic and technical support mechanisms for technology adopters. • Behavioral factors influencing future CSA adoption vary among non-adopters, practice adopters, and technology adopters. • Social norms strongly motivate non-adopters intention to adopt CSA. • Perceived compatibility drives continued CSA practice adoption, while perceived ease of use enhances continued CSA technology adoption. • Non-economic motives support continued CSA practice adoption, whereas economic motives drive CSA technology continuation. • Tailored interventions are essential to motivate future CSA adoption decisions further.

The aim of this review was to provide an overview of existing farming practices and technologies in Europe by assessing their contribution to climate-smart agricultural (CSA) outcomes. Following the PRISMA protocol, 110 final selected studies were scrutinized. Altogether 74 different practices and technologies were identified. Using an inductive approach, the identified practices and technologies were categorized, and their potential contribution towards contextualized CSA outcomes—productivity, resilience, GHG mitigation, biodiversity improvement, animal welfare support, water and energy use efficiency—was assessed. Among CSA farming practices, this review highlighted legume-based cover crops, crop rotation, intercropping, and crop diversification as having promising potential to achieve CSA outcomes. Among CSA technologies, precision fertilization, crop protection, and irrigation showed promising potential. Moreover, pasture grazing, legume-based feed additives, improved forage production and holistic husbandry management with precision technologies were identified as promising contributors to CSA outcomes. The review emphasizes that the utilization of smart farming technologies and practices in crop and livestock production systems could positively contribute to achieving one or more outcomes. Overall, the GHG mitigation and farm productivity improvement outcomes were relatively well covered in the reviewed literature. Improvements in biodiversity, water and energy use efficiency, and animal welfare outcomes are not well demonstrated within the identified studies.

The adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a critical component in the transition to a more sustainable food system. However, the transition calls for significant changes in the food production system, in which stakeholders in the supply chain should work collaboratively. So far, most studies have focused on the perceptions of one actor, the farmer, on implementation of CSA practices. This study aims to include also other stakeholders’ perceptions on drivers and barriers to CSA implementation in the primary production for five European food supply chains. Data were collected from stakeholders using a semi-structured interview guide, including farmers, producers and manufacturers, advisory service providers, advocacy institutions, policy officers, researchers, and consultants. The top three drivers to foster the adoption of CSA practices within the five food supply chains touched on economics, institutions and policy, as well as personal and psychological factors. Similarly, the top three barriers limiting adoption of CSA practices were seen to be economic, technology-related aspects, and institutional and policy factors. According to the stakeholders, addressing these barriers requires financial support, policy changes, and capacity-building efforts to make these practices attractive especially to farmers. They also emphasized that improved coordination among stakeholders, incentives for sustainable practices and customized strategies for communicating and disseminating CSA information can help catalyse effective understanding and implementation of CSA practices.

Agriculture is currently facing major challenges related to ensuring the food security of a rising population and climate change with extreme weather patterns. At the same time, agriculture is a cause of environmental degradation, pollution and biodiversity loss. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is proposed as an approach that provides a roadmap to sustainable agricultural development. Despite this, farmer adoption rates of CSA practices and technologies in Europe remain low. This paper seeks to systematically review and synthesize the factors that facilitate or hinder farmers’ uptake of CSA in Europe. Out of the 2827 articles identified in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, a total of 137 research articles were included for analysis following the PRISMA methodology. The factors are categorized into seven categories, namely socio-demographics, psychological, farm characteristics, practice/technology-related attributes, biotic/abiotic, systemic and policy factors, with the majority of the studies focusing on the first four categories, while systemic and policy factors are relatively understudied. The results highlight for the first time that the adoption of CSA does not depend solely on farmer characteristics but also on the food systems and structures in which farmers operate, as well as the interactions with other value chain actors. To promote the adoption of CSA practices, extension and advisory services along with access to timely and reliable information, play a vital role in increasing awareness and in the provision of training and the encouragement of farmers’ behavioral shifts towards sustainable practices. From a technological point of view, adapting technologies to be easy to use, compatible with current farming objectives and cost-efficient will render them less risky investments for farmers and will foster adoption rates. Finally, support from the government in terms of financial support, subsidies and reduced bureaucratic procedures is crucial for motivating CSA adoption.

Given that Ethiopian agriculture is seriously threatened by climate change, understanding the factors that influence the adoption of various climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices supports policy interventions to reduce negative effects of climate change. Therefore, this study was aimed at exploring determinants of the adoption of multiple CSA practices by focusing on crop production. This study used data from 271 randomly selected smallholder farmers from the Gamo, Gofa and Konso zones of southern Ethiopia, and a multivariate probit (MVP) model was used to analyse the data. Crop diversification, irrigation, drought-tolerant and early-maturing crop varieties, integrated soil fertility management, and integrated pest management were prominent CSA practices to improve crop productivity, increase adaptivity capacity, and mitigate the adverse climate change effects in the study area. The study's findings indicate that the adoption of CSA practices varies considerably between farmers and agroecology. The MVP simulation result reveals that farmers’ adoption decisions for CSA practices are highly interdependent, indicating that farmers adopt two or more adaptation and mitigation strategies as mutual CSA practices. Furthermore, the regression result reveals that the education level of farmers, extension contact, accessing climate variability information, access to irrigation facilities, and social group participation were similar underlying factors that affected the adoption decision of CSA practices. By providing climate change information, respective organizations should encourage farmers to utilize available alternate irrigation access and climate-resilient crop varieties. In addition, strengthening social norms through agricultural cooperatives and training on the application of integrated pest management and soil fertility management are suggested to spur farmers' CSA uptake.

D1.1 Integrated framework of decision-making factors

Even though agriculture has ample potential to absorb a large number of people, youths tend to stand away from the subsector. As a result, rural job creation works were started in southern Ethiopia by participating youth in different agricultural enterprises in the form of groups and cooperatives. However, as compared to sector potential, youths are not participating in agricultural job creation works in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study was intended to assess factors affecting youth participation in agricultural enterprises in selected districts of Southern Ethiopia. A multistage sampling procedure was followed to select 160 sample youths. The collected data from sampled youths were analyzed by both descriptive statistics and a probit econometric model. Among the agricultural enterprises, the majority of the youths (63.3%) preferred livestock enterprises indicating livestock sector job creation capacity in Ethiopia. The seasonal nature of agricultural income, fear of agricultural risk, and lack of initial capital were the top three factors hindering youth participation in the agricultural enterprise as rural job creation works. The probit model result shows that, among the hypothesized variables, education level, credit getting bureaucracy, lack of initial capital, fear of the group, risk and uncertainty, and lack of working place determine significantly youth participation in agriculture enterprises. Hence, respective bodies must group youths based on their preferred interest and evaluate their business plan critical before credit disbursement, while solving credit providing terms problems on the microfinance side and the introduction of agricultural insurance through these youth agricultural enterprises for agricultural risk fear needs stakeholders’ interventions. Overall, initial savings, interest rate, and payback period of credit need special policy adjustments to increase youth participation in an agricultural enterprise.

The majority of farmers are producing maize in the Gamo and Gofa zones and they are not benefiting from it due to the marketing problem. Thus, this study was intended to analyze the maize market chain and determinants of market participation in the selected maize-producing districts of the Gamo and Gofa zones. To achieve this objective, multistage sampling techniques were followed to randomly select 151 sample respondents. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, marketing margins, and the double hurdle model. The survey results revealed that approximately 35.88% of the maize from the total maize produced by the sampled farmers was marketed in the study area. The result indicates that among the five identified maize marketing channels, the largest volume of maize passed through channel V (producers, urban collectors, and consumers). In the marketing of maize, traders set the price due to poor market linkage and the low bargaining power of producers. The model regression result indicates that among the hypothesized factors, family size, allocated land size for maize, and market information have a significant effect on the quantity of maize market supply. Based on this finding, strengthening extension services through training and accessing inputs are recommended. Furthermore, market linkage through the cooperative establishment and the availability of market information by respective bodies is suggested.

Though Bench Sheko and Sheka zones have great potential for dairy production in Ethiopia, the majority of dairy producers could not benefit from the sector in a sustainable way due to the low market participation problem. Hence, this study was designed to analyze determinants of market participation by dairy producers in Southwestern Ethiopia. Data from 160 sampled dairy producers were employed and analyzed by using the probit model. The model result shows the ownership of crossbreeds, utilization of improved livestock feeds and size of dairy cows’ ownership affect market participation decisions significantly and positively. While the number of children below six years and distance from the market are the significant factors determining the likelihood of dairy market participation negatively in southwestern Ethiopia. Therefore, demonstrations of improved livestock breeds through supplying improved bulls and artificial insemination technologies, demonstration of improved livestock forages and concentrates through training, and organizing dairy marketing cooperatives and dairy products collection centers are suggested to improve market participation in the study area.

Even though the Gamo zone is a prevalent mango producing area in Ethiopia, the lack of comprehensive post-harvest loss research along the mango value chain prevents respective stakeholders from recognizing the socioeconomic, nutritional and environmental significance of the post-harvest loss problem. Improving the post-harvesting handling practice not only increases the production by reduction of post-harvest loss but also increases food access at the market level with prices adjustment. Therefore, this study was intended to assess the post-harvest loss along the mango value chain and the challenges that actors and stakeholders face in the process. To do this, 120 mango producers were selected following a multistage sampling procedure. The analysis result shows that the main reasons for the low productivity of mango are the use of the local variety, disease and insect pests and lack of improved harvesting technologies. The result also shows about 41% of mango loss in the study area was due to a lack of improved harvesting mechanism and infection by disease and pests and poor transportation mechanisms. From this loss, the harvesting stage shares the largest share (18%) along the mango value chain. In addition, lack of improved mango varieties, lack of cooperative and wholesale marketing and lack of value addition practice are the major identified problems in the study area. There is also a huge loss of mango production in the study area that needs immediate intervention from respective stakeholders. Thus, dissemination of improved varieties through the distribution of seedlings, modifying the existing harvesting materials and introduction of improved harvesting technologies, strengthening the cooperative marketing and supporting alternative products development through processing was suggested.

A Cobb–Douglas stochastic production frontier was used to analyze the technical efficiency of wheat producers under row planting and broadcasting methods in Hadiya zone, southern Ethiopia. The estimated results of the Cobb–Douglas frontier model show that the mean technical efficiency was 83.4% and 57.8% under row planting and broadcasting, respectively. Approximately 646.882 kg/ha under row planting and 1393.038 kg/ha under broadcasting of wheat output were lost due to inefficiency. This reveals that under the existing practices there is a room to increase wheat yield more under broadcasting (42.2%) than row planting (16.6%) following the best-practice farms in the study area. The SPF model indicates that NPS, urea, labour and seed are significant determinants of wheat production level in both methods. The estimated SPF model together with the inefficiency parameters show that education, age, fertility status of the plot, family size, land fragmentation and extension contact were the main factors that had a significant influence on technical inefficiency of wheat farmers. Hence, emphasis should be given to improving the efficiency level of those less efficient farmers by adopting the practices of relatively efficient farmers in the area.

Abstract Background Bonga sheep is a mutton type breed with a long-fat-tail and better body weight at maturity. The breed is especially located in the Southwestern mid and highland land areas of Ethiopia. Currently, the breed was well known in Ethiopia and also its price is higher as compared to other sheep breeds in the country. However, empirical evidence is lacking on price determinants of the breed in Ethiopia. Therefore, this research aims at identifying sheep attributes and other factors that determine the market prices of Bonga sheep in Southwestern Ethiopia. Methodology Data from 300 traded sheep and sheep marketers were collected from five major sheep marketing centers in the Kaffa zone. A hedonic price model adjusted for heteroscedasticity was employed to analyze the observed price data. Results The model result showed that the attributes of the sheep are important guiding criteria in price formulation. Among the attributes age, sex (male), colour (red), body condition (good), tail type (very fat) and absence of horn significantly and positively determine the sheep price. As well, market place (Gojebi and Bonga) near to big cities and season (holiday) and purpose of purchase are also significant determinants of bong sheep price out of the sheep attributes in Southwestern Ethiopia. Conclusion Targeting in systematic improvement of the significant attributes which are demanded by the market and establishment of a breeding program to make sheep improvement in a sustainable way. Besides, effort should be geared to transform the system into a market-oriented system using a value chain framework by improving access to market information.

This study aims to identify value-chain actors, estimating the profit share of each actor in the chain and identifying constraints and opportunities along the fish value chain. Data from 120 sampled respondents were collected through extensive personal interviews; field observation and the collected data were processed in a (SPSS) statistical package for social science. The study identified six main value-chain actors (fishermen, fishermen cooperatives, wholesalers, processors, retailers, and end-users/consumers) who were involved in value-adding, supplying, collecting and marketing, and consuming, but still there were slightly strong market linkage among actors. They lack a win-win strategy in the overall share of cost and profit. For instance, of the value-chain actors in districts, fishermen share high costs but as evident, they earn little profit. The sector faces many production constraints (lack of modern knowledge and poor harvesting and storage facilities, illegal fishing materials, weak governance, and many harvesting sites) and marketing constraints (price fluctuation, poor quality supply-insufficient value-added and seasonality of market). However, to ensure the benefit of the actors and profitability of the sector there should be a need for building good governance for better proper management of monitoring and evaluation and thereby strengthen the chain. Creating an enabling environment of postharvest handling and optimal value addition. Further, there is still a need for studying standard mesh size, weight and maturity stage of each fish species in each lake.

Rural job creation works were started in southern Ethiopia by participating youth in different agricultural enterprises in the form of groups and cooperatives by 2015. Even though agriculture has huge potential to absorb a large number of people, youth tend to stand away from the sub-sector. So, this study was intended to assess factors affecting youth in participation of micro and small agricultural enterprises in selected districts of Southern Ethiopia. Mult-stage sampling techniques were applied to select 160 sampled youths and the probit model was applied to analyze the collected data. Seasonality of agricultural income, fear of the risk of agriculture, lack of initial capital, the problem of getting the group members and ineffectiveness of previously grouped enterprises are the main factors hindering youth participation in the agricultural enterprise as rural job creation works. The probit model result also shows that education level, credit getting bureaucracy, lack of initial capital, fear of being group and risk and uncertainty and lack of working place are adverse determinants of youth participation. Hence, monitoring of the organized enterprises at the ground before credit disbursement and division of credit individually, and introduction of agricultural insurance through these agricultural enterprises are suggested. Finally, the policy issue should revisit the initial saving percentage, interest rate, payback period to increase youth participation.

Bonga sheep is one among the known indigenous sheep breeds in Ethiopia with a high rate of growth and weight gain under smallholder management. To enhance the sheep productivity, 16 Bonga sheep breed improvement cooperatives were established in Kaffa zone of southern Ethiopia. Even though the cooperatives bring success in terms of breed improvement and income generation, there’s no empirical evidence of this. Thus, this study was intended to identify factors affecting cooperative membership and estimate its impact on farmers’ income. To do this, data from 320 sampled households were collected by using multistage sampling techniques. For analysis, the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model was employed. The result of ESR estimation shows that the probability of farmers’ membership decision is decided by the number of sheep owned, extension contact, and proximity to a cooperative office. The model results further confirm that members get significantly better (34%) than if they had not been members and non-members would have even performed better (56%) than members if they had joined cooperatives. This suggests sheep breeding cooperatives are effective in improving the income of sheep producers. Thus, efforts need to be made to tackle factors that are impeding households’ cooperative participation. Further, strengthening of the existing cooperatives and establishment of additional cooperatives is suggested.

Abstract In a country like Ethiopia where the vast majority of the populations are employed in agriculture, land is an important economic resource for the development of rural livelihoods. Agricultural land in peri-urban areas is, however, transformed into built-up regions through horizontal urban expansion that has an effect on land use value. In recent years Ethiopia has been experiencing rapid urbanization, which has led to an ever-increasing demand for land in peri-urban areas for housing and other nonagricultural activities that pervades agricultural land. There is a high demand for informal and illegal peri-urban land which has been held by peri-urban farmers, and this plays a vital role in the unauthorized and sub-standard house construction on agricultural land. This urbanization has not been extensively reviewed and documented. In this review an attempt has been made to assess the impacts of rapid urbanization on agricultural activities. Urban expansion has reduced the areas available for agriculture, which has seriously impacted upon peri-urban farmers that are often left with little or no land to cultivate and which has increased their vulnerability. Housing encroachments have been observed to be uncontrolled due to a weak government response to the trend of unplanned city expansion. This has left peri-urban farmers exposed to the negative shocks of urbanization because significant urbanization-related agricultural land loss has a positive correlation with grain production decrease. Appropriate governing bodies should control urban development in order to control the illegal and informal spread of urbanization on agricultural land that threatens food production.