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The smallholder agricultural commercialization and market participation is a key precondition for the transformation of agriculture sector from subsistence to commercial production. However, the contribution of smallholder agricultural commercialization and participation remains low. As a result, this paper aimed to discover the conceptual understanding, the role of smallholder agricultural commercialization and participation, its determinants and to identify the initiative mechanisms to enhance it. In Ethiopia the average landholding size of smallholder farm is 1.18 hectares per farm household which meets the conventional meaning of smallholder farms (less than 2 ha). Ethiopian smallholders agricultural plow over 96% of the full agricultural land, although average smallholder cultivates less than one hectare, and consumes greater than 65% of total. In addition, despite all these efforts, commercialization of smallholder farmers' products is still at a low level. The low-level smallholder agricultural commercialization which in turn low level of value addition as a result -low level of total marketed supply forces the country to import different crops and livestocks. Accordingly, this review identified the major determinants of smallholder agricultural commercialization were technology adoptions, markets and their integration, asset holdings and policy aspects. Therefore, an initiative mechanism to enhance smallholder agricultural commercialization and participation in Ethiopia is an imperative strategy which includes, providing better access to agricultural technologies; encouraging farmers' cooperatives and establishing agro-industry parks. Therefore, this review paper recommends interventions geared towards improving smallholder farmers' organization, producers' association and ensuring appreciable reduction in transaction costs and also farmers' access to productive assets and technologies which is capable of stimulating profitable smallholders' market participation and as a result deemed important to transform subsistence to commercialization agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a lot has been written on the socio‐economic and welfare impacts of agricultural technologies, there has been a bias toward crop production systems to the neglect of improved livestock production methods and technologies. This paper explores the welfare impacts of improved livestock production practices and technologies using data from a low‐income country. Using an econometrics technique that corrects selection bias, the paper shows that the adoption of improved livestock production practices has a positive impact on household welfare, measured by consumption expenditure and diet quality. The study also identified increased consumption of animal source foods, reducing animal death and income from the sale of animals as potential mechanisms through which such improvements in livestock production affect family welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of new policies promoting decentralized energy technologies is likely to have profound effects across all the nexus activities, including agricultural production, input use, and labor allocations. Thus, this paper analyzes the potential synergies and trade‐offs created by the adoption of renewable energy technologies along the water–energy–food security nexus in Ethiopia. We use a mathematical programming‐based household model to compare the impacts of fossil‐based and renewable energy use on rural households' livelihoods. Our findings show that only a 10% subsidy to the price of biogas digester considerably changes the energy mix of all types of households and increases the use of decentralized modern energy sources. Household crop production patterns are not changed substantially as a consequence of the biogas subsidy, despite the competition over resources between crop and energy production. Nonetheless, the subsidy policy can lead to family labor reallocation from collecting fuelwood to agricultural activities. Moreover, the biogas subsidy can improve household incomes. Specifically, the findings indicate that 10% biogas subsidy can lead to 0.93% and 3.44% increases in the net incomes of wealthier and poorer households, respectively, compared to the business‐as‐usual scenario, that is, also has a pro‐poor dimension. Sensitivity analyses are carried out and it appears among others that more subsidy of the price of biogas digester leads to an increase in the net income of the two household types. Overall, the benefits generated by the biogas subsidy in terms of increases in net household incomes outweigh the total costs of the subsidy program. The findings indicate the importance of the subsidy policy to improve rural households' welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural cooperatives are increasingly being viewed as an effective means of promoting agricultural technologies in developing countries. This paper examines the effects of cooperative membership on inorganic fertilizer use intensity. Employing a three‐wave panel dataset relating to smallholder maize farmers in Ethiopia, we model inorganic fertilizer application as a two‐step decision‐making process involving both fertilizer adoption and its use intensity. To reflect these two related steps, we use a double‐hurdle model. We account for unobservable household heterogeneity and endogeneity utilizing a correlated random‐effects framework and a control function approach. The findings reveal that cooperative membership increased inorganic fertilizer use intensity, as well as the probability of it being used in the first place by 4.2% and 5.3%, respectively. Following further examination of who benefits most among cooperative members, we discovered that membership benefits all farmers in terms of fertilizer use intensity, irrespective of the members' poverty status. However, we did not observe a significant effect of cooperative membership on the likelihood of fertilizer use by land‐poor and less asset‐endowed households. This highlights the necessity of implementing policies that provide poor and marginalized Ethiopian maize farmers with resources that enhance the contribution agricultural cooperatives make to their well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inadequate information on the benefits of and knowledge about innovative agricultural technologies continue to be a major constraint to technology adoption among smallholder farmers in developing countries. The low adoption of new technologies is one of the causes of low productivity and high poverty incidence among smallholder farmers, particularly in Africa. In this paper, I briefly review the literature on social networks and technology diffusion, and argue that the diffusion potential of social networks is underexplored. I then present results from two empirical studies on the impact of social networks on the adoption of improved crop varieties in Ghana and Ethiopia. The results reveal that farmers' peer adoption decisions and experiences, as well as information from trained development agents positively and statistically influence their adoption decisions. I also find that network structural characteristics such as lower segmentation within networks, high credibility of the information, and high effectiveness and efficiency of the amount of information flow tend to improve information acquisition and speed up diffusion of improved crop varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the use of extension agents in connecting rural people to food security programs in the Irob and Gulomekeda districts, in eastern Tigray, Ethiopia. This study employed qualitative research involving 50 semi-structured interviews, 10 focus group discussions, and 15 hours of personal observation. Extension agents use public meetings to transfer agricultural technologies to rural people. However, results showed that public meetings are ineffective to connect rural people to food security programs. This has limited peoples' power to voice their concerns and restrained their agency to sanction their choices and negotiate the structures. Besides, the food security implementation procedures are not inclusive limiting people's participation in the strategy design and strategy implementation procedures. Study results also showed that administrative challenges and personal incompetence have affected extension agents from undertaking their duties effectively. Overall, despite Ethiopia invests in agricultural extension systems, little has been achieved to improve rural food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: This paper investigates constraints to yield enhancing technology adoptions, highlighting credit using data pooled from the first three waves of the Ethiopian socio-economic surveys. Design/methodology/approach: Direct elicitation methodology is used to identify household's non-price credit rationing status. The panel selection model specified to examine causal effects of credit constraint on adoption variables allows us to tackle self-selection into adoptions and potential endogeneity of credit constraint while controlling for unobserved heterogeneity in both the selection and main equations. Findings: Results show that about 54% of sample households face credit rationing, predominantly demand-side risk rationing. There is a negative association between measures of credit constraint status and adoption variables. The effect is stronger when the demand-side credit rationing is accounted for and when within household variation in credit constraint status overtime is considered as opposed to across constrained and unconstrained households. Practical implications: Expanding physical access to institutional credit alone may not necessarily spur increased uptake of credit and instant investment by farm households. For a majority of them to take advantage of available credit and improved technology, interventions should also aim at minimizing downside risks. Originality/value: This paper incorporates the role of downside risk in influencing farmer's decisions to uptake credits and subsequently his/her adoption behaviors. The researcher approached the topic by state-of-the-art method which allows obtaining more reliable results and hence more specific contributions to research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethiopia's agriculture-based economy generates highly seasonal outputs, with most production occurring during the long-rains Meher season and a lesser amount during the short-rains Belg season. Despite numerous studies detailing the economic impacts of Meher precipitation, there is relatively little consideration of other seasonal or subseasonal climate impacts in Ethiopia, with most economic models only considering aggregated annual-scale production to simulate the Ethiopian economy. This paper serves to address both seasonal and subseasonal effects of climate using a partial equilibrium agroeconomic model of Ethiopia. First, an annual-scale model is disaggregated into a seasonal time step, corresponding to the two major cropping seasons in Ethiopia. Second, the effect of yield gains from a subseasonal forecast–based planting strategy is considered in the updated model. We found that crop yields and corresponding economic indicators varied widely by season and location, and that subseasonal forecast–based management strategies can, on average, increase gross domestic product (GDP), per capita calorie consumption, and lead toward reduced poverty, warranting the inclusion of seasonal and subseasonal processes in economic models and agricultural planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural extension services in poor countries often identify opinion leaders based on criteria such as wealth and social status. We explore the effectiveness of this top-down approach by analysing the role of so-called model and nodal farmers in the diffusion of malt barley in a highland community in Ethiopia. We use a retrospective case study design where we combine quantitative network analysis with qualitative data. Nodal farmers played a more central role in knowledge diffusion of the technology than model farmers. While model farmers were wealthier and better connected to the local authorities, nodal farmers were socio-economically more similar to their fellow farmers. Nodal and model farmers, as well as farmers closely connected to them, had a significantly higher adoption index than the rest. The diffusion of knowledge is an important condition for the adoption of modern agricultural technologies, but it is not enough, particularly when access to external inputs is limited. Moreover, relying on assumed opinion leaders has its limitations and may even reinforce existing inequalities. This paper has shown the complementarity of network approaches. We propose network approaches such as social network analysis to identify community brokers who emerge from bottom-up or clan-based, political, knowledge networks that mediate access to agricultural technologies. Our combined research approach differs from the mainstream of studies in this field that employ either ethnographic fieldwork or (spatial-)econometric methods. We aim to create a bridge between the often separated worlds of (technical) agronomic research, (qualitative) rural sociology, and (quantitative) econometric analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adoption of improved forage technologies remains to be one of a promising strategy to boost dairy productivity and enhance household income in many developing countries. However, there are limited rigorous impact evaluation studies on the contributions of such technologies on smallholder dairy productivity and household welfare. This paper examined the impact of improved forage technologies use on smallholder dairy productivity and farm household income in Northern Ethiopia. In this study, a cross-sectional survey design and a multistage stratified sampling procedure were employed. Primary data for the study were obtained from a random sample of 319 rural households, 128 of which are improved forage technology users and the rest are nonusers. The research employed the propensity score matching (PSM) procedure to determine the causal relationship between adoption of improved forage technologies and changes in milk yield and farm household income. Results from PSM revealed that households using improved forage technologies have increased the household milk yield (productivity) by 29.32% and farm income (welfare) by 19.56%. Higher milk yield and annual farm income were compared to those households not using such technologies. Our findings highlight the importance of promoting multiple improved forage technologies among rural smallholder's dairy producers. Considering this potential, it is suggested that improved forage technology generation, dissemination, and adoption interventions be strengthened for optimum milk production and to attain optimum income under the smallholder farmers' dairy production system. Moreover, the linkage among research, extension, universities, and farmers needs to be enhanced through facilitating a multistakeholder's innovation platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Promoting and provision of improved agricultural inputs technology innovations-, is key to increase the productivity through intensification of smallholders farms. However, there are limited rigorous impact evaluations on the contributions of such combinations of improved technologies on household income. This paper investigates the impact of improved agricultural technology use on farm household income in East Shewa Ethiopia. Methods: The study uses a multi stage sampling procedure to select 400 sample households. Data were collected using a household survey, a focus group discussant (FGD) and key informant interviews. Binary logistic regression model and propensity score matching (PSM) were used to analyse the data collected. Results: Results of the propensity score matching analysis showed that households using improved agricultural technologies had on average the annual income higher than the adopters by Ethiopia Birr 14,407.96. We found the importance of promoting complementary agricultural technologies among rural smallholders. Conclusions: The farmers are using improved agricultural inputs widely and their status may be vary from farmer to farmer based on availability, accessibility and lack of awareness of the issues involved. The adoption of multiple combinations of improved technologies has substantial effects that improve the agricultural productivity status of smallholders in the study areas. We suggest that rural technology generation, promotion, dissemination and adoption interventions be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of modern agricultural technologies remains to be a promising strategy to improve agricultural productivity, achieve food security and reduce poverty in Ethiopia. Despite the efforts to promote adoption in the country, the adoption rate has always been very low. So, it is essential to understand the determinants to the adoption of modern agricultural technologies. This study investigates the determinants of agricultural technology adoption decisions in the rural Amhara region of Ethiopia. The study is based on an Ethiopian socio-economic survey of 2015/16 and a sample of 656 farm households is considered. The paper uses a multinomial logit model to assess the factors affecting the adoption decision of agricultural technology. The result shows that farmers with more educational level, family size, off-farm participation, livestock, extension service, credit access, advisory service, and farmers closer to plot, all-weather road, zonal town, and farmers with lower remittance income are more likely to adopt new or improved agricultural technology. Accordingly, the study provides crucial policy implications regarding the technology adoption in the agricultural sector for all regions of Ethiopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geocybernetic assessment matrix (GAM) evaluation of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices in Ethiopia is carried out in this paper. With regard to the five fundamental geocybernetic paradigms, the GAM is built to determine the nature and level of sustainability or unsustainability that exists. The goal of the GAM assessment is to determine the nature and level of sustainability of the three core criteria of the CSA: (1) productivity, (2) resilience and (3) mitigation. In particular, it is to determine, from a geocybernetic point of view, the nature of the CSA practices of farmers in the climate change era to manage their agricultural production systems. The overall patterns from the viewpoint of the standardization paradigm indicate strong sustainability. Although the findings obtained in relation to other paradigms suggest that in most CSA practices, limitations remain in achieving managed co-evolution. This indicates that there is still an obvious disagreement from a geocybernetic perspective as to the essence of sustainable development desired. In addition, the findings reveal substantial anthropocentric skews within the goals, whereby they appear to concentrate solely on social and economic interests, as opposed to a holistic point of view that encompasses the environment. There is a need to set priorities, goals and benchmarks to resolve the overlooked CSA practices in order to facilitate sustainable development along an optimal direction and to preserve interests in social, economic and environmental co-evolution at all spatio-temporal scales. Furthermore, we argue that research agendas need to concentrate on inventing locally adapted site-specific innovations for local farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological change in agriculture in climate risk exposed developing countries requires for land-use intensification to feed the growing populations. The purpose of this article is to analyze the impact of participation in rural credit program on adoption of yield enhancing technology(inorganic fertilizer) using 1412 farm households surveyed in 2005/06, 2009/10, and 2014/15 cropping seasons from rural Tigrai, northern Ethiopia where smallholder farmers are financially constrained to purchase of improved agricultural technologies. The paper uses a double hurdle correlated random effect models with a control function approach to analyze the causal effect. Results show that controlling for the unobservable heterogeneity and the underlying determinants of fertilizer adoption and credit participation, for an increase of credit size by 1% from its mean, adoption rate of inorganic fertilizer has increased by 2.5% and supports the earlier hypothesis. The results imply that expanding and strengthening of rural credit program are crucial for smallholder agriculture and appeared to have a more robust impact on adoption of inorganic fertilizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Agricultural production can be increased via intensification, which entails investments in modern inputs and technologies is a better option for increasing agricultural production and improving the livelihoods of farm households. However, there are different factors such as;-demographic, institutional, socio-economic characteristics hindered the adoption of improved agricultural technologies. Thus, this paper investigates the determinants of adoption decisions of multiple agricultural technologies on the basis of cross-sectional household level data generated in East Shewa, Ethiopia. Methods: The study uses a multi stage sampling procedure to select 400 sample households. Data were collected using a household survey, a Focus Group Discussant (FGD) and key informant interviews (KIIs). Binary logistic regression model was used to analyse the data collected. Results: The results of the logistic regression model estimate indicate that out of the 13 variables, six were found to have significant influence on the probability of being adopters of improved agricultural inputs at less than 1%, 5% and 10% probability level. These are extension service, access to credit, time of input distribution, price of inputs, farmer's level of motivation and total annual income households' head. We found the importance of promoting multiple and complementary agricultural technologies among rural smallholders. Conclusions: The adoption of multiple combinations of improved technologies has substantial effects on improvement of the agricultural productivity status among smallholders' farmers. We recommend that improve system of using improved agricultural technologies, better to make uniform, cluster and to reduce the variation observed in rate of application kilogram per hectare among farmers in using improved agricultural technologies especially in teff varieties and chemical fertilizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies evaluating the impact of adoption on welfare focused on adoption of a single technology giving little attention on the complementarity/substitutability among agricultural technologies. Yet, smallholders commonly adopt several complementary technologies at a time and their adoption decision is best characterized by multivariate models. This paper, therefore, examines the impact of multiple complementary technologies adoption on consumption, poverty and vulnerability of smallholders in Ethiopia. The study used a balanced panel data obtained from a survey of 390 farm households collected in 2012, 2014 and 2016. A two stage multinomial endogenous switching regression model combined with the Mundlak approach and balanced panel data is employed to account for unobserved heterogeneity for the adoption decision and differences in household and farm characteristics. An ordered probit model is used to analyze the impact on poverty and vulnerability. We find that the adoption of improved technologies increases consumption expenditure significantly and the greatest impact is attained when farmers combine multiple complementary technologies. Similarly, the likelihood of households to remain poor or vulnerable decreased with the adoption of different complementary technologies. We therefore conclude that the adoption of multiple complementary technologies has substantial dynamic benefits that improve the welfare of smallholders in the study area, and given the observed low level of adoption rates, we suggest that much more intervention is warranted, with a special focus on poorer and vulnerable households, to ensure smallholders get support to improve their input use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Agricultural technologies developed by national and international research institutions were not benefiting the rural population of Ethiopia to the extent desired. As a response, integrated agricultural extension approaches are proposed as a key strategy to transform the smallholder farming sector. Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian Farmers project is one of the development projects initiated by integrating productivity enhancement technological schemes with market development model. This paper explores the impact of the project intervention in the smallholder farmers’ wellbeing. Methods: To test the research hypothesis of whether the project brought a significant change in the input use, marketed surplus, efficiency and income of farm households, we use a cross-section data from 200 smallholder farmers in Northwest Ethiopia, collected through multi-stage sampling procedure. To control for self-selection from observable characteristics of the farm households, we employ Propensity Score Matching (PSM). We finally use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques to estimate technical efficiency of farm households. Results: The outcome of the research is in line with the premises that the participation of the household in the IPMS project improves purchased input use, marketed surplus, efficiency of farms and the overall gain from farming. The participant households on average employ more purchased agricultural inputs and gain higher gross margin from the production activities as compared to the non-participant households. The non-participant households on average supply less output (measured both in monetary terms and proportion of total produce) to the market as compared to their participant counterparts. Except for the technical efficiency of production in potato, project participant households are better-off in production efficiency compared with the non-participant counterparts. Conclusion: We verified the idea that Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian farmers’ project has contributed for the input and out market integration and/or market oriented agricultural production. Overall, we argue that these can be seen as an experimental model with a promising potential to improve the livelihood of the poor. Furthermore, we suggest that it is worthwhile to employ integrated agricultural extension programs with further targeting in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a peri-urban poverty-stricken community in the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 15 years of development efforts were undertaken by establishing an enterprise, which initially consisted of a horticultural farm and finally was composed of a multifunctional farm and a restaurant with a shop. The enterprise collaborated with BioEconomy Africa, which was charged with administrative, monitoring and facilitation tasks, and provided a training, demonstration and research facility. In the innovation process, the enterprise selected technologies and implemented them within the context of local economic and market conditions. The project benefitted from a flexible allocation of modest funds. This paper assesses the sustainability of the enterprise and the community on the basis of social–ecological system transformability and resilience. The scheme of the Food and Agriculture Organization is used to evaluate the transformability, while resilience is evaluated through self-organization capacity, disturbance absorption capacity, and learning and adaptability. The project period was divided into five Macro-phases. The transformability assessment of the enterprise revealed nonlinear and asynchronous dynamics of environmental sustainability, economic resilience, social well-being and governance that after reaching a minimum attained a maximum at the end of the period under observation. The resilience assessments showed that the self-organization capacity, the disturbance absorption capacity, and learning and adaptability slowly changed to reach a satisfactory level at the end of the observation period. The changes in transformability and resilience profoundly affected the livelihood of the community. The paper demonstrates the important role of agricultural in the development of poverty-stricken peri-urban communities and indicates that innovation processes and the efficiency of facilitation extension model implementation can be enhanced by applying adaptive project execution procedures. It can be concluded that the continuous monitoring and assessments of transformability and resilience are a prerequisite for efficiently moving the socio-ecological system on a smooth road towards a socially acceptable standard of living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural innovations are inclusive when they are used by any member of society who wants to use them. Conversely, agricultural innovations that can only be used by a specific privileged group within society can be characterized as "exclusive". The first objective of this paper is to examine the inclusivity of agricultural innovations in Ethiopia, using national representative data and considering a wide portfolio of innovations resulting from the collaborative research between CGIAR and its national partners. Second, we also examine how measurement error may affect how we characterize the inclusivity of agricultural innovations. We use nationally-representative survey data from Ethiopia (collected in 2018/19) in which best-practice measures of the adoption of a large number of agricultural innovations were embedded, including the adoption of CGIAR-related improved maize varieties measured using two different approaches: subjective, self-reported survey data; and objective DNA fingerprinting of crop samples taken from the same farmers' plots. A rich set of household variables is also collected in the survey, which allows characterizing the types of farmers that are adopting different innovations, and the extent to which conclusions regarding the inclusivity of innovations depends on the measurement of the latter. Many innovations are not disproportionately more likely to be adopted by male, larger, richer, or more connected farmers. When using self-reported data on adoption of improved maize varieties, adoption appears positively correlated with having larger landholdings and households with lower female participation in agriculture, and negatively correlated with poorer households (being among the bottom 40% of consumption distribution). Substituting survey responses with the results of DNA fingerprinting these correlations disappear, with farm size, gender and poverty status no longer predictive of adoption. The results suggest the potential value of offering a menu of innovations to farmers to increase inclusivity, as it allows each farmer to be a critical consumer of potential innovations and select those that best correspond to their own needs and constraints. We also highlight how important data quality is in ensuring we have correct information about inclusive innovation. [Display omitted] • Nationally representative data on adoption of agricultural innovations for Ethiopia. • Examines importance of representative samples and valid measurement in shaping understanding of inclusive innovation. • Patterns of inclusiveness are innovation-specific and can be subject to measurement error. • Objective measures (e.g. DNA fingerprinting for crop variety adoption) can provided unbiased picture of inclusive innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration as part of the livelihood of the rural farm household has got a recognition for its developmental effect. Currently, bringing smallholder farmers to the market through better agricultural productivity and market integration is the critical element for agricultural transformation in particular and rural transformation in general. To this effect, improving smallholder farmers' tendency towards commercialization through better technology adoption and input utilization has been seen to play significantly in various studies. However, in developing countries like Ethiopia, where low level of credit facilities and poor institutional arrangements are installed, adoption of productive agricultural technologies and input utilization is very low. Thus, among the various alternative livelihood diversification strategies for poor farmers, migration is the one which helps to bridge the financial gap and input requirements of the rural farmers and 'asset accumulation'. This study focused on intra-rural migration which is still dominant in size as well as a research segment which is buried in migration study. Cognizant to the interplay between migration and agriculture, this study had an attempt to examine the impact of intra-rural labour migration on crop output commercialization using primary first-hand original data with support of stringent econometric models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intellectual property right (IPR) is a broad term which describes the protections granted to the creators of IP, and includes; trademarks, copy right, patents, industrial designs, plant breeder's right and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. The objective of this review is to show the status, challenges, and opportunities for agricultural technologies intellectual protection in the Ethiopian intellectual property regime. There are many agricultural technologies that have the potential to be protected by intellectual property. The results of this review article shows that there are several challenges for the protection of agricultural technologies IPR, including lack of awareness on the concept of IP, lack of clear policy direction for the protection of plant varieties, absence of IP assets creation mechanism, low level of institutional linkage among stakeholders, agricultural IPRs are complex in nature, poor organizational structure to register, and lack of experienced and well-qualified IP officials. But there are also prospects for agricultural technologies IPR protection. Some legal frameworks are in the process of revision, an independent authority for the agriculture sector has established, the Ministry of Agriculture has prepared the draft regulation for PBRs proclamation, amendment of the agricultural and rural development policy has in the process, and the country's WTO accession process shows some improvement. In conclusion, the status of IP protection for agricultural technologies has not been well-developed and the registration of agricultural technologies is still null. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary It has now become almost a stylized fact that sustained agricultural growth is central to rapid poverty reduction and economic development. Yet, world poverty is largely concentrated in the agrarian societies, which have the potential for agricultural productivity growth. This is particularly true for Sub-Saharan African countries, where the gaps between potential and actual yields remain high. Minimizing this gap through the promotion of modern inputs—such as fertilizer and modern seeds—has been at the core of almost all development strategies in Ethiopia. Among other initiatives, the country has promoted microfinance institutions and member-owned financial cooperatives to alleviate credit constraints of the smallholder farmers. This paper analyzes the impacts of these institutions. Using household survey data and a propensity-score-matching technique, we examine the effects that institutional financial services have on farmers’ adoption of agricultural technology in Ethiopia. The results suggest that access to institutional finance has a significant positive impact on both the adoption and extent of technology use. However, when impacts are disaggregated by type of financial institution and farm size, heterogeneities are observed. In particular, financial cooperatives have a greater impact on technology adoption than microfinance institutions, and the results appear to vary depending on farm size and types of inputs. The paper concludes with implications for policies to promote adoption of modern agricultural inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Ethiopia, like most developing countries, the majority of households depend on wood and charcoal as their cooking energy resources. This energy has a direct impact on the forest coverage and its emissions have significant health issues. Biogas technology has introduced to address these problems and reduce energy poverty in developing countries. However, the success of this technology depends on many factors such as technology appropriateness, available skill, proper introduction, and government support to create favorable financial incentives. The objective of this paper is to make an overview assessment of biogas development programs in Ethiopia, identify development barriers and provide suggestions to mitigate these barriers. The national and regional biogas program of Ethiopia has implemented to give energy for cooking and to some extent for lighting. However, it has shown limited success over the years. The National Biogas Programme of Ethiopia has shown an overall 50% achievement while the Tigray region registered 55% achievement. In addition, the owner of the biogas facility in Tigray reported a 57% functionality rate but the lowest satisfaction level of 15%. Generally, the region has shown relatively better performance in terms of dissemination and functionality but a low satisfaction rate due to technical limitation, unsteady input, and financial factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One way of fostering smallholder farmers' agricultural productivity is through encouraging agricultural technology adoptions. However, agricultural technology adoption remains very low in Ethiopia. As a consequence, many studies have been researched why agricultural technology adoption remained low. Nonetheless, a handful information is available on aggregate factors influencing agricultural technology adoption in Ethiopia. Therefore, very little is known about the common factors affecting agricultural technology adoption in Ethiopia. Hence, this meta-analysis was aimed to quantify the determinants of agricultural technology adoption from adoption literature. Based on a comprehensive and systematic search strategy, and inclusion and exclusion criterion, 12 studies conducted between 2010 and 2018 were included in this meta-analysis. Random effect model was used to identify the determinants of agricultural technology adoption in Ethiopia. Results of random effect model confirmed that age of the household head, education level, farm size, livestock holding, access to extension services, access to credit services, cooperative membership and distance from the market were significantly associated with agricultural technology adoption. Therefore, policy makers and other stakeholders should focus on common variables found to affect agricultural technology adoption in designing policies that encourage agricultural technology adoption in Ethiopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we explore whether and how the dynamics of access shape the scaling of modern agricultural technologies. It is based on the experience of an agricultural research for development (AR4D) project called CASCAPE, which aims to validate and scale agricultural best practices for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. The socio-political dynamics of external interventions are often taken for granted contextual factors in AR4D projects. By contrast, this article takes this context as the point of departure for its analysis. The aim of this in-depth case study is to unpack the concept of access as condition for scaling of agricultural technologies. We identify and analyse the mechanisms that determine access to the various components of a malt barley technology package which was introduced in two highland communities in southern Ethiopia (and later 'scaled' to a range of other communities). Our research approach is technographic, implying that we consider the technology to contain both material and social components. The findings suggest that social and clan-based exchange mechanisms (such as clan-based loyalty, reciprocity and vertical accountability) are often rendered invisible even though they are of critical importance in governing access to the material and social components of modern agricultural technologies. Ignoring this socio-political context in the malt barley interventions resulted in an unintended scaling effect in terms of widening the social and economic gap between a few better off farmers and a larger group of poor farmers. The paper thus provides evidence that the socio-political dynamics of access to technology can have an important influence on its wide spread application and may complicate efforts to scale the uptake of technology. Paying more attention to such processes would help to improve the effectiveness of AR4D efforts. • Scaling and adoption arise from a web of interactions in farming communities • Ignoring the socio-political context may result in perpetuating the status quo • Tackling social exclusion requires addressing the constrained agency of the poor • Mechanisms that affect access determine the success or failure of scaling [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of the majority of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia to take advantage of agricultural technologies and economic opportunities in the livestock sector remains an unresolved puzzle. This paper assesses the role of economic, social, political and organizational processes on technology adoption in smallholder livestock production systems based on innovation systems perspective. Functions of the innovation systems framework was used to assess the missing links in the dairy sector value chains. The results show that weak or missing innovation systems functions such as entrepreneurship, knowledge diffusion, market development, and policy advocacy mirror the low uptake of improved technologies in the livestock sector. Shortage of domestic suppliers of key technological inputs and services, weak input and output markets and weak interaction among value chain actors have been the major hindrances to livestock development. For example, there were no reliable sources of improved breeds of dairy heifers, veterinary supplies, quality semen, and equipment. The results suggest that technical knowledge and availability of economic opportunities alone may not be enough to stimulate the uptake of technologies and commercialization of dairy production. The peculiar nature of inputs, services, and output in the livestock sector requires innovative business models that can facilitate the coordination of knowledge, skills, inputs, services and output markets in livestock value chains. • Technology adoption constraints in livestock sector assessed. • Weak entrepreneurship, knowledge diffusion, market development and policy advocacy. • Extension approaches that coordinate knowledge, input and output markets are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrigation stimulates agricultural productivity and economic growth, but this may come at the cost of growing inequality. Using data at community and household level, this paper analyzes the distributional impacts of irrigation in Ethiopia. Regression analyses reveal the direct effects of irrigation on expenditures and labour demand, and the indirect effects of irrigation on food prices and expenditures of non-irrigation households. The results indicate that past development of irrigation stimulated growth without deepening inequality, and that irrigation decreased dependence on food-for-work programs. Thus, irrigation has played a positive role in the development of Ethiopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat row planting has been seen as a good agronomic practice for increasing wheat yields in Ethiopia. To meet this end, Ethiopian government agricultural extension activities are concerned with the promotion and scaling-up of wheat row planting. However, there is shortage of empirical study on the impact of row planting on wheat yield compared to the conventional broadcast planting method in Dawuro zone, southwestern Ethiopia. This study analyzes factors affecting smallholder farmers participation in wheat row planting and its impact on wheat yield, using data collected from 307 wheat farm households in the Mari Mansa district of Dawuro zone, southwestern Ethiopia. Binary logit and propensity score matching techniques were employed for data analysis. The results of logistic regression suggest that the availability of active family labor force, access to agricultural extension, participation in training and field visit days, farmers saving status, participation in off-farm income, education level, and age of smallholder farmers were important determinant factors in influencing adoption of wheat row planting method in the study area. The propensity score -matching results indicate that the mean yield of row-planted wheat was higher by 24.46% compared to the mean yield of conventional broadcast planting methods in the study area. Therefore, there is need to put due attention by the government agricultural extension services and nongovernment agricultural and rural development programs to promote and scale-up wheat row planting practices at smallholder farm level to reduce the current yield gap between row and conventional broadcast planting of wheat in Dawuro zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There exists isolated work that focuses on context, resilience, and sustainability of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D). However, research on how the three concepts inform and influence one another to better meet the development goals and priorities is limited. More research is required to enhance our holistic understanding of ICT4D interventions in terms of the approaches applied to investigate context, resilience, and sustainability from socio‐technical perspectives. This research explores the link among the triple concepts to fill the above void, drawing from qualitative data collected from multiple but networked stakeholders at a local agriculture extension information service. Data is processed in a way to understand: the context of the local development practices and stakeholders, the gaps in the design of information systems applied to support local development practices, and how local communities remain resilient in their information exchange practices. Building on the existing knowledge of context, resilience, and sustainability in ICT4D the research shows how the context of the local development practices inform resilience and in turn how resilience enables the continued operation of the local development practices (context), and how context and resilience lead to sustainable ICT4D interventions. The research contributes to theory by showing how the social and technical resources distributed in the social system and the stakeholders' networks can be unlocked to conceptualize the links between the triple concepts. It informs practitioners on how they can develop a holistic understanding of the socio‐technical contexts of local developments and the socio‐technical factors to design resilient ICT4D that will lead to sustainable digital interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of agricultural technology adoption on poverty reduction in north Shewa zone of Amhara region of Ethiopia in 2020. Using the selection model, this study finds that farm household's decision to adopt agricultural technologies are mainly influenced by sex of the household head, credit access, saving, extension visit, farm cooperatives and distance from market. Using an endogenous switching regression model, this study finds that adopters of agricultural technologies have higher food consumption expenditure per adult. Moreover, the significant difference in food consumption expenditure per adult equivalent between the actual and counterfactual scenario is very high. The result of the study confirmed that adoption of agricultural technology has a direct and significant impact on increasing household's consumption expenditure while also reducing household poverty. The findings of the study suggest that increasing the access and adoptions of agricultural technologies significantly improves the welfare of farm households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural productivity was negatively impacted by low soil fertility and uneven fertilizer application during crop cultivation in Ethiopia. Because of this, important crops frequently respond to fertilizer applications significantly below their achievable and potential yields. This study was carried out to determine the most sorghum yield-limiting nutrients in the Raya Kobo area of the Amhara Region in the 2020/21 crop season. Sorghum variety Girana-One was used as the test crop. Control, NPS, PSBZn, NPBZn, NSBZn, NPSB, NPSZn, NPSBZn, recommended NP, and NPSKBZn were treatments. Three replications of the experiment were used in a randomized complete block design. Before treatment application, a composite soil sample was collected at a depth of 0–20 cm to determine the soil's physicochemical properties. To evaluate N and P uptakes, samples of sorghum stalk and grain were collected. SAS software was used to analyze the data. Results showed that, NPKSZnB produced a considerably greater grain yield (4620 kg·ha−1), whereas the control and N omitted plots produced the lowest grain yields (2759 kg·ha−1) and 2805 kg·ha−1, respectively. Nitrogen fertilizer missing plots showed a statistically significant yield drop compared to the other plots, and there was no statistically significant yield difference between the prescribed NP plots and the potassium, sulfur, boron, or zinc omitted plots. The plots treated with NPKSZnB had the highest agronomic efficiency for N (19.7 kg grain kg−1·N) and P (10.6 kg grain kg−1 P2O5). Therefore, research and development should therefore concentrate on nitrogen to achieve the best sorghum yield for the study location. Phosphorus might also be used to keep the fertility level within the ideal range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the new economics labor migration theory as a theoretical framework and the multinomial treatment effects negative binomial regression as an analytical model in southern Ethiopia, this study investigated the effects of rural out-migration on the intensity of agricultural technology adoption. In the year 2021, data were collected from 415 sample houses using stratified random sampling. Regression analysis showed that while the influence of migration from rural to urban areas is negligible, participation in international migration greatly increases the likelihood of technology adoption in rural families by 38.9%. The intensity of agricultural technology adoption by rural households is negatively and significantly correlated with male-headed households and household age, while the frequency of extension visits, non-farm participation, saving, membership in cooperatives, sales of livestock, and tropical livestock unit are positively and significantly related to the intensity of agricultural technology adoption. The outcome is consistent with the labor migration theory's risk and credit hypotheses. To encourage the adoption of agricultural technology and stop the recent surge of rural out-migration in southern Ethiopia, policymakers should provide access to capital, public services, and viable off-farm employment in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We investigate the demand supply side constraints of credit facing smallholders in developing countries using survey data and econometric models. • Against several past studies and policy discourse linking rural credit to suppl-side factors, we found that demand-side factors such as risk-aversion behavior are equally important. • Our results suggest that women are more likely to be credit constrained (from both the supply and demand sides) than men in both study countries. • We suggest on addressing both supply- and demand-side credit constraints, and gender-sensitive policies to improve women's access to credit. Credit constraint is often considered as one of the key barriers to the adoption of modern agricultural technologies and low agricultural productivity in low- and middle-income countries. Past research and much of the policy discourse associate agricultural credit constraints with supply-side factors, such as limited access to credit sources or high costs of borrowing. However, demand-side factors, such as risk-aversion and financial illiteracy among borrowers could also affect credit-rationing of smallholder agricultural households. This study investigates the nature of credit constraints, factors affecting credit constraint status, and the effects of credit constraints on adoption and intensity of use of three modern agricultural technologies – small-scale irrigation, chemical fertilizer, and improved seeds. The paper also assesses whether credit constraints are gender-differentiated. Primary survey data were collected from sample farmers in Ethiopia and Tanzania, and Tobit and two-step hurdle econometric models were used to analyze these data. Results show that demand-side credit constraints are as important as supply-side factors in conditioning smallholders' access to credit in both countries. We also find that credit is a binding constraint for the decision to adopt technologies and input use intensity in Tanzania but not statistically significant in Ethiopia. Results suggest that women are more likely to be credit constrained (from both the supply and demand sides) than men in both study countries. Based on these findings, we suggest that policies should focus on addressing both supply- and demand-side credit constraints to credit access, including through targeted interventions to reduce risk, such as crop insurance, and to strengthen the gender sensitivity of credit policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is one of Ethiopia's economic cornerstones, although its production remains low. Since then, the implementation of modern agricultural technologies has remained a promising strategy in Ethiopia for increasing agricultural production, achieving food security, and reducing poverty. The objective of the study is to examine the determinants of modern agricultural technology adoption for teff production in Minjar Shenkora woreda. The data were collected from the representatives of 362 rural households. This study employed both descriptive statistics and multinomial logit model. The estimations of the multinomial logit model revealed that sex, age, marital status, tropical livestock units, educational level of household head, distance to market, extension contact, active household members, access to credit, off-farm activities participation, and cultivated land size are the determinants of modern agricultural technology adoption for teff production in Minjar Shenkora woreda, North Shewa Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Therefore, this study recommended that the country's federal and regional governments, agricultural development offices, nongovernmental organizations, and donor agencies should collaborate with farm households to improve access to information, access to credit, encourage off-farm participation and provide training and consulting services to increase the adoption of modern agricultural technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how farm households' decision to use modern agricultural inputs is influenced by the weather variability using a household panel survey merged with long‐term historical weather data from Ethiopia. As a part of an effort to fill methodological gaps that are observed and anticipated in previous similar literature, this study employs a more flexible modeling approach under a multiagricultural technologies framework. Findings suggest that weather uncertainty reduces the probability and intensity of adoption of productivity‐enhancing inputs, including chemical fertilizer and improved seed. The average partial effect for rainfall variability indicates that each additional percent of coefficient of variation of precipitation decreases the fertilizer use per hectare by, on average, 2.5%, other factors being constant. Similarly, a 1% increase in rainfall variability is associated with on average 0.6% and 4.5% decrease in probability and extent of improved seed use, respectively. We also observe that abundance rainfall during the previous production period increases the use of yield‐enhancing inputs in the current growing season. On the other hand, we observe that variability in rainfall increases the probability of the adoption of loss‐reducing agricultural technology, such as irrigation. Findings also indicate that by deterring their incentive to invest in productivity‐enhancing agricultural inputs, weather risk could confine uninsured farming households in a low productivity‐low income trap. Results also highlight the importance of policy interventions aiming to improve the risk‐bearing capacity of smallholder farmers in encouraging investment in productivity‐enhancing technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Using cross-sectional data and a propensity score matching technique, this paper investigates the impact of cooperatives on adoption of agricultural technologies. Our analysis indicates that cooperative members are more likely to be male-headed households, have better access to agricultural extension services, possess oxen, participate in off-farm work, and have leadership experience. We also found that geographic location and age of household head are strongly associated with cooperative membership. Our estimation results show that cooperative membership has a strong positive impact on fertilizer adoption. The impact on adoption of pesticides turns out to be statistically significant when only agricultural cooperatives are considered. Further analysis also suggests that cooperative membership has a heterogeneous impact on fertilizer adoption among its members. The results suggest that cooperatives can play an important role in accelerating the adoption of agricultural technologies by smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper evaluates the potential impact of adoption of improved legume technologies on rural household welfare measured by consumption expenditure in rural Ethiopia and Tanzania. The study utilizes cross-sectional farm household level data collected in 2008 from a randomly selected sample of 1313 households (700 in Ethiopia and 613 in Tanzania). The causal impact of technology adoption is estimated by utilizing endogenous switching regression. This helps us estimate the true welfare effect of technology adoption by controlling for the role of selection problem on production and adoption decisions. Our analysis reveals that adoption of improved agricultural technologies has a significant positive impact consumption expenditure (in per adult equivalent terms) in rural Ethiopia and Tanzania. This confirms the potential role of technology adoption in improving rural household welfare as higher consumption expenditure from improved technologies translate into lower poverty, higher food security and greater ability to withstand risk. An analysis of the determinants of adoption highlighted inadequate local supply of seed, access to information and perception about the new cultivars as key constraints for technology adoption. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In most of Sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural extension models have become more decentralized and participatory and thus rely on effective farmer-to-farmer learning, while increasingly including nontraditional forms of education. At the same time, agricultural technologies become more complex and are now often promoted as integrated packages, which are likely to increase the complexity of the diffusion process. Based on a randomized controlled trial, this study assesses the effects of "farmer-to-farmer" extension and a video intervention on adoption of a complex technology package among 2,382 smallholders in Ethiopia. Both extension-only and extension combined with video increase adoption and knowledge of the package, especially of its more complex components; on average, however, the video intervention has no additional effect on adoption. Knowledge and the number of adopted practices also increase among farmers not actively participating in extension activities, which suggests information diffusion. For this group, the additional video intervention has a reinforcing effect, and particularly fosters adoption of the integrated package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops cultivated in wide range of agro-ecologies in Ethiopia. But, its productivity has remained low. Hence, this study intends to examine the impact of agricultural technology adoption on wheat productivity in north Shewa zone of the Amhara region, Ethiopia. The analysis is based on household level data covering 693 households collected in 2020. Multinomial logit model (MNL) and multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) models are used for analysis. The results reveal that agricultural technology adoptions are affected by the education level of the household head, off-farm employment, tropical livestock, access to credit, household saving, extension visit, and distance from the market. In addition, the study shows that the adoption of fertilizer and/or improved seed increases wheat productivity significantly. Furthermore, the adoption of a combined fertilizer and improved seed provides higher productivity than the adoption of single technologies. Therefore, this study recommends that government and other stakeholders should have to work in collaboration with rural farmers to increase rural technology generation; dissemination and adoption interventions to improve wheat productivity in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing climate change is vital to exert context-specific responses to allay its adverse effects. The purpose of this study is to examine the perception and determinants of agricultural technology adaptation of teff producers to climate change in North Shewa zone, Ethiopia. Data were collected from 378 farming households through a multistage and simple proportional sampling procedure. Both descriptive and econometric analyses were used in this study. A Heckman probit model and a multinomial logit (MNL) model are used to examine the determinants of perception and adaptation to climate change, respectively. The results of the Heckman probit model revealed that gender, farm experience, access to extension services and information access were found to have a significant influence on the probability of farmers to perceive and/or adapt to climate change. The multinomial logit models showed that education, gender of the household head being male, marital status, farming experience, income, access to information, livestock ownership, tenure status, and access to extension are the main factors that increase adaptive capacity. However, distance to the nearest market and family size negatively and significantly affect the decision to adopt various agricultural technologies. This study recommends that, Future development initiatives should focus on enhencing perception and scaling up climate change adaption technology, which calls for a public-private collaboration and a shared vision of all potential stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of agricultural technology adoption on household food consumption expenditure in rural Amhara regional state, Ethiopia. The study is based on the data obtained from the Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey collected in 2015/16. Household-level data were taken from 656 rural farm households in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. The study used the endogenous switching regression model to estimate the impacts of agricultural technology adoption on household food consumption expenditure per adult equivalent per annum. The result of the study reveals that adopting agricultural technology significantly increases household food consumption expenditure per adult equivalent. Moreover, the difference in household food consumption expenditure per adult equivalent between the actual and counterfactual scenarios is very high. The findings of the study reveal that broader investment in agricultural technology and increased access and adoption of agricultural technologies significantly improve the welfare of farm households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, sub–Saharan African countries including Ethiopia have largely targeted large-scale agricultural investment (LAI) on the grounds of economic growth, employment and income generation, but with little consideration of its potential impacts on local smallholder farmers. Using evidence from the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia (CRVE), this study provides an in-depth analysis of the socioeconomic impacts of LAIs, particularly on the local smallholder farmers, based on data collected through a household survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. For the purpose, descriptive and inferential statistics and qualitative thematic analysis were used to interpret the data. Our study found that the LAI has many positive socioeconomic benefits to the local communities, as measured by technological transfer, employment opportunity and local infrastructure development. However, those farmers who were able to access LAI had better positive socioeconomic benefits while those who could not access LAI (particularly the smallholder farmers) were disproportionately disadvantaged. Nonetheless, LAI motivated and prompted some farmers to use improved agricultural technologies, including irrigation, better crop varieties, chemical fertilizer and engagement in alternative sources of income such as shopkeeping, selling manufactured products and food and drinks to farm employees and casual employment opportunities within the LAI. This has resulted in improvement of the livelihood status of some farming households. Despite several positive impacts, some negative impacts, such as loss of farmlands, reduced numbers of livestock, increased price of farmland for renting, have disproportionately affected the livelihoods of local smallholder [End Page 59] households. In light of these findings, we conclude that scaling up of agricultural technologies and targeted support to smallholder farmers for alternative income sources (with technical and financial support) could improve their livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrigation has significant potential to enhance productivity, resilience to climatic risks and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the focus has historically been on large-scale dam-based schemes, farmer-managed small-scale irrigation (SSI) has gained increased attention in recent years. Using data from Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana, we first examine patterns of adoption of different SSI technologies. Next, we employ hierarchical modelling to examine which variables are associated with observed adoption patterns and cluster effects that explain variation in irrigation adoption. We document significant cross-country variation in adoption patterns and find a positive association between plot-level use of SSI and the intensity of agricultural labor and inorganic fertilizers applied on the plot. Community-level intra-cluster correlation (ICC) is the highest in Tanzania, where gravity-fed irrigation is most common while farm-level ICC is the highest in Ethiopia where motorized technologies are more common. These results suggest the need for localized investments to ease locale-specific potential constraints. For example, easing possible liquidity constraints to acquiring motorized technologies can be more effective in Ethiopia while the construction of dams and improved conveyance systems, as well as the strengthening of community-based irrigation management (e.g., through Water User Associations (WUAs)) can be more effective in Tanzania. Further research is needed to understand pathways for selected plot-level characteristics that affect use of SSI including status of plot ownership and the gender of the plot manager. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethiopia has heterogeneous topographic, climatic and socio-ecological systems. Recommendations of agricultural inputs and management practices based on coarse domains such as agro-ecological zones (AEZ) may not lead to accurate targeting, mainly due to large intra-zone variations. The lack of well-targeted recommendations may contribute to the underperformance of promising technologies. Therefore, there is a need to define units where similar environmental and biophysical features prevail, based on which specific recommendations can be made for similar response units (SRUs). We used unsupervised machine learning algorithms to identify areas of high similarity or homogeneous zones called 'SRUs' that can guide the targeting of agricultural technologies. SRUs are landscape entities defined by integrating relevant environmental covariates with the intention to identify areas of similar responses. Using environmental spatial data layers such as edaphic and ecological variables for delineation of the SRUs, we applied K- and X-means clustering techniques to generate various granular levels of zonation and define areas of high similarity. The results of the clustering were validated through expert consultation and by comparison with an existing operational AEZ map of Ethiopia. We also augmented validation of the heterogeneity of the SRUs by using field-based crop response to fertiliser application experimental data. The expert consultation highlighted that the SRUs can provide improved clustering of areas of high similarity for targeting interventions. Comparison with the AEZ map indicated that SRUs with the same number of AEZ units captured heterogeneity better with less within-cluster variability of the former. In addition, SRUs show lower within-cluster variability to optimal crop response to fertiliser application compared with AEZs with the same number of classes. This implies that the SRUs can be used for refined agricultural input and technology targeting. The work in this study also developed an operational framework that users can deploy to fetch data from the cloud and generate SRUs for their areas of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beekeeping is one of the livelihood options available to Ethiopian farmers. The objectives of this study were to analyze the level of adoption of modern hive technology by farmers and to identify the variables influencing the adoption of modern beekeeping hive technology in Kacha-Birra Woreda. Primary data were collected from 89 respondents chosen using a multistage sampling process, while qualitative data were collected through focus group discussion and key informant interviews. Data were analyzed using a binary logit regression model and descriptive statistics. According to the results of the model, several factors, such as the educational level of the respondents, the size of the land, the extension, the contact, and the access to financing and market, had a substantial impact on the adoption of modern hive beekeeping technology. It is suggested that the Livestock and Fish Resource Development office develops a strategy to help the community's illiterate members benefit more from the use of contemporary hive beekeeping technologies, develops a strategy to benefit farmers who have large land sizes with modern hive beekeeping technology, establishes extension contact with farmers before technology innovation leads to better adoption of technology, and strongly advises to link a strategy with micro-enterprises. Promotional activities focused on preventing the access to the market of respondents that must ensure their active participation in adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combinations of improved agricultural technologies adoption have a significant effect on agricultural productivity and household food security. Their synergies improve soil fertility and suppress weeds, pests, and diseases. Many studies in Ethiopia analyze the impacts of improved technologies adoption in isolation rather than in combinations; little attention was given on multiple combinations of improved technologies adoption on household food security. This study analyses the impact of combinations of improved agricultural technologies adoption on household food security (per capita calorie consumption, dietary diversity score, and food consumption score). Data were collected from household survey questionnaire, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. An endogenous switching regression model is applied to analyze the impacts through adoption decisions by farm households which can be adopted in various combinations. We find that the adoption of improved agricultural technologies increases dietary energy supply, dietary diversity, and food consumption score significantly and the greatest impact is obtained when improved technologies adopting in combinations rather than in isolation. The adoption of multiple combinations of improved technologies has substantial effects that improve the food security status of smallholders in the study areas. This implies that agricultural research, extension, policymakers, and other actors to promote a combination of improved agricultural technologies to improve household food security through increasing productivity and income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]