Determinants of smallholder farmers’ participation in highland bamboo markets: The case of Hula and Gummer Districts, Ethiopia

We investigated the factors that determine participation by smallholder farmers’ in the highland bamboo markets in Ethiopia. Our empirical data were drawn from a representative survey of 274 bamboo growers in the Hula and Gummer districts of Southern Ethiopia. A double-hurdle econometric model was used to explain decisions regarding whether to sell highland bamboo and how much to sell. We found that 67% of the farm households in the sample had sold a certain amount of highland bamboo over the 12-month time period. The double-hurdle estimation results suggest that family size, proportion of land allocated to the production of highland bamboo, access to training, off-farm income, market links, bamboo farming experience, and access to market information have positive and significant effects on the decision to sell bamboo as well as on how much to sell. In contrast, households far from all weather-roads had significantly lower bamboo sales than those located nearby. Market participation was also highly correlated with the geographical location of households.