Effect of rural transport infrastructure on the intensification of purchased input use for major food crop production: the case of smallholder farmers in Horro Guduru Wollega Zone, Western Ethiopia.

This paper examines the effect of rural transport on smallholder farmers' purchased input use. A random sample of 500 respondents was selected and relevant data was collected. Descriptive, correlation, and regression statistics were used to analyze the data. The multiple linear regression analysis revealed that farmers' purchased input use was found to be significantly and negatively related to distance to major market, distance to all weather road, distance to farm plot, transport cost, and size of land holding. In contrast, farmers' purchased input use was found to be significantly and positively related to family size, off farm income, membership in a cooperative, being in Horro district, having animal cart, and access to good road. Further, the results of hierarchical multiple regression showed that approximately 82% of the total variation in purchased input use can be explained by the linear combination of all independent variables. Furthermore, the result showed that rural transport infrastructure-related variables, as a set, contributed 13.3% to the prediction of farmers' purchased input use over and above the remaining predictors. The results suggest that improving the rural road infrastructure and access to rural transportation services is vital in encouraging farmers' purchased input use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]