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This paper aimed to examine the determinants of farmland degradation in the West Guji Zone. The study employed data collected in 2020 from a sample of 385 farm households selected using a simple random sampling technique. An ordered probit model was run to examine the association of explanatory variables with the severity of farmland degradation. Farm plot assessment results indicate that most farm plots were categorized as slightly degraded, followed by moderate, non-degraded, and severe degradation statuses. The study indicated that the main causes of farmland degradation were intensive cultivation without fallow, deforestation, high precipitation, overgrazing, steep slopes, and wind. The ordered probit results revealed that age of household heads, number of plots, and slope of the farmland positively and significantly influenced the severity of farmland degradation, while sex of household heads, soil conservation status, family size, education, land-to-labor ratio, and extension contact were negatively and significantly associated with the severity of farmland degradation. Therefore, the study suggests the provision of training to farming households, promotion of cost-effective modern feed resources and homemade biogas, implementation of a participatory management approach, scaling-up existing land management practices, ensuring the sustainability of natural resource use, and a close linkage between farmers and extension agents to minimize farmland degradation.

In the Guji Zone, even though cereal crop production volume has shown an increasing trend by 100.5% between 2011 and 2020, the proportion of cereal crops that are marketed has declined by 12.9% during the same years. This study was designed to analyze determinants of cereal crop commercialization in the Guji Zone. The study used cross-sectional data collected in 2019 from a sample of 288 farm households. The study showed that farmers in the Guji Zone were semi-commercially oriented in the cereal crops output market with an average level of cereal crops commercialization of 48.33%. The ordered probit model result revealed that the level of cereal crops commercialization was significantly explained by sex of the household heads, ownership of equines, cultivated land size, the frequency of extension contact, credit use, the value of crops produced, and household’s medium perception about lagged crop price. Thus, the level of cereal crops commercialization can be improved by increasing the frequency of extension contact, agricultural credit supply at low cost, and use of strategies that promote intensive agriculture such as warranting of the availability of modern agro-inputs at affordable prices, and promotion of the adoption and use of modern agro-inputs by farm households.