Ethiopian Economy Research Articles

Effects of Storage Duration and Structures on Sesame Seed Germination, Mold Growth, and Mycotoxin Accumulation.

Sesame is an important oil crop for the Ethiopian economy. However, the lack of adequate storage facilities results in significant losses of sesame seeds. This study was designed to compare the effects of storage conditions and the subsequent impact on sesame seed germination, mold growth, and mycotoxin accumulation over the storage period. The efficacy of two hermetic bags (1. Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags and 2. Super GrainPro (SGP) bags) was directly compared to sesame storage in polypropylene (PP bags) and Jute bags. Storage conditions (oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, moisture content and relative humidity) of samples were analyzed in the laboratory in three replicates. Results showed that the oxygen concentrations dropped to 6.9% (±0.02) in PICS bags and 8.7% (±0.06) in SGP bags at the end of 6 months of storage. In non-hermetic bags Jute and PP), oxygen levels were close to atmospheric levels at 2-, 4-, and 6-month storage periods. In non-hermetic bags throughout storage, the amount of seed infection by mold constantly increased, and seed germination decreased. Sesame seeds stored in hermetic bags had 89.7% (±0.58) to 88.3% (±2.89) germination rates versus 61.67% (±2.08) for non-hermetic storage bags over the 6-month seed storage period. All mycotoxin levels increased over the same storage period, whereas comparative levels were much lower in hermetic bags after six months. Sesame seeds stored in both hermetic bags had the lowest level of tested mycotoxins, and levels among the SGP and PICS bags were not significantly different from one another. This study provides strong evidence indicating that hermetic storage structures such as PICS and SGP significantly affect temperature, humidity, moisture content, CO2 and oxygen levels resulting in the lowering of fungal growth and mycotoxin accumulation and effectively preserving stored sesame without relying on synthetic pesticides in Ethiopia.

Assessment of Factors Affecting the Growth of Small and Micro Enterprise: A Case Study of Eastern Wollega Zone Selected Three Woredas

Micro and Small Scale Enterprise play a crucial role in economic development and social well-being both in developing and developed world. The aim of SME development and the provision of SME services are to enable the entrepreneurs to take advantage of market opportunities and improve the access to skill development opportunities that strengthen entrepreneurial capabilities (UNIDO. 2002). As part of the industrial sector, SMEs are increasingly becoming popular and important in the Ethiopian economy as they would play a decisive role in contributing to employment generation, poverty reduction and the opening of wider distribution of wealth and opportunities (HK HAILU, 2010). In Ethiopia, SMEs Sector is the second largest employment- generating sector following agriculture. In East Wollega zone the majority of the residents are engaged in micro and small enterprise, specifically on trade, service, construction, urban agriculture and manufacturing.

Inclusiveness of Wage Employment and Determinants of Wage Incomes in Ethiopia

Unemployment is one of the critical problems of developing countries, including Ethiopia. Agriculture is not only the mainstay of the economy of Ethiopia, but it is also a major contributor of employment opportunities for its citizens. The government of Ethiopia promotes commercialization of the agricultural sector through large-scale farming investment by the private sector. The article examined inclusiveness of large-scale farming and factors that determine wage incomes earned by plantation workers in Ethiopia. Both primary and secondary data were generated from households, and large-scale farming companies. Data were subjected to a modified Mincer's earnings function to see which group of the society benefited from wage employment. Inclusiveness in plantation agriculture in the form of wage employment was very limited to the local indigenous population in Gambella and Benshangul Gumuz regional states due to lack of prior farming experiences of the workers. Men and those with technical trainings received better incomes from wage employment. Regional variation in wage rates was observed among Oromia, Gambela and Benshangul Gumuz regional states due to harsh working environment and low availability of workforce. Inclusion of the local people in wage employment should receive attention by owners and the government, which will otherwise affect smooth and sustainable operation of the farms. Further, it calls for an intervention to enhance the technical skills of workers and improve women’s participation and earnings in plantation agriculture. Keywords: Plantation agriculture; wage employment; large-scale farms; inclusiveness; Mincer earning regression; Ethiopia

Organoleptic Quality Attributes and Their Association with Morphological Traits in Arabica Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) Genotypes

Arabica coffee is an essential crop in the national economy of Ethiopia. There is little information available about the cup quality profile of Teppi coffee, despite several sites across the country having conducted research on the organoleptic properties of various coffee types. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the quality attributes of the genotypes and correlate their inherited quality with morphological traits. The experiment was superimposed on five-year-old plants of 17 coffee genotypes during the 2018 cropping season at Teppi and Gemadro sites. Using the wet processing method, six kilograms of red coffee cherries were carefully harvested, processed, and sun dried to a moisture content of 10.5% to 11.0%. To obtain the necessary number of replications, each sample was divided into three, and three cups for each sample were prepared for the tasting sessions. Organoleptic quality attributes were scored using the standard established. The analysis of variance for aromatic quality, acidity, flavor, and overall cup quality showed a highly significant difference ( P = 0.01) among the tested coffee genotypes. All of the organoleptic quality attributes evaluated showed a no significant correlation with morphological traits like body (r = −0.11) and hundred-bean weight and, flavor (r = −0.1) and bean thickness. However, there was a strong correlation between organoleptic quality attributes like flavor (r = 0.95 ∗ ∗ ) and acidity (r = 0.94 ∗ ∗ ), demonstrating that any organoleptic characteristic is an important element in beverage quality. It is challenging to simultaneously choose for cup quality and bean physical features because there were no significant correlations between organoleptic quality and these traits. In this study, genotype 3/8 showed outstanding performance across locations for all organoleptic quality attributes, which can be used in the Arabica coffee-breeding program.

Characterization and Analysis of Farming System in Horo Guduru Wollaga Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Agriculture is a dominant sector of Ethiopian economy which makes a lion share contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, employment and foreign exchange earnings. Agriculture is still believed to remain a sector that plays an important role in stimulating the overall economic development of the country in the years to come. To improve agricultural productivity it requires detail study on existing farming systems. This study is to characterize and analyze the existing farming system, identify the production constraints and further opportunities in the farming system interventions for the study areas. The study was based on primary and secondary data. A three-stage sampling technique was employed to select respondents from the population. The study was based on cross sectional data collected from 123 randomly selected respondents. About 86.18% of the sample respondents were male headed with while 13.82 were female headed households. The zone was characterized by mixed farming systems i.e. livestock and crop production take place within the same locality. The farmers face production and market constraints to improve production and productivity. The production constraints of livestock production were disease, shortage of grazing land, feed shortage, shortage of veterinary medicine, lack of improved breed and shortage of water while marketing constraints were Market price/demand fluctuation, Lack of information, Lack of market linkage and High transaction cost. The production constraints of crop production were Disease and insect, High cost of inputs, Untimely input supply, Shortage of land, Weed infestation, Shortage of inputs, Low yield, Poor seed quality and Poor soil fertility while market constraints low price of output, lack of market information, lack of market linkage and high transaction cost. Even though the farmers were practice SWC through Check dam and terraces, soil erosion, soil acidity, water logging, soil fertility decline and termite were important constraints in natural resources. Improving livestock productivity through improved breed, forage, control disease and control illegal livestock trade are need attention. Additionally, improving crop productivity through IPM, improved varieties, minimizes transaction cost, focus on high value of crop, expand soil and water conservation, strength market information and linkage where need urgent concentration. Keywords: Oromia , Horo Guduru Wollega, Characterization, farming system DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/102-01 Publication date: October 31 st 2022

Conceptual Design of Animal Feed Chopper with Medium Capacity

Agriculture is the backbone of Ethiopia economy directly or indirectly and most of its population is residing in rural areas. The majority of rural community is engaged in agricultural crop production, cattle farming and poultry production. To prepare feed for animals, the conventional feed cutting machines are intensively used which do not have friendly operation. Chopping of animal feed is considered as a labour intensive processing operation in animal production system. Traditionally, animal feed, especially crop residue are chopped manually by a sickle in the farms of Ethiopia. It is a labor intensive, less efficient and time consuming operation. Keeping in view, the drawbacks of the traditional chopping, this study has been carried out for the design animal feed chopper machine in order to reduce the above mentioned. Engine operated animal feed chopper has been designed for chopping of crop residue and hay. The machine was designed with the following main components: feeding hopper, feed roller, rotating blade, casing with fixed knives welded on it, a screen and stands. The machine was seated treatment based on the design concepts and designed up to capacity 300 kg /hr. This machine was design keeping in view its multifunctional operation like for the cutting of maize stacks, sorghum stack, agricultural crop biomass etc. The provision was provided to run this machine at variable speeds for different jobs/applications and to achieve variability in particle sizes. The economic production of designed animal feed chopper machine was simple and its cost 10,618.45ETBirr.

Temporal Rainfall Anomaly and Its Association with Crop Yield: In the Case of Afar Region, Ethiopia

Ethiopian economy is predominantly agrarian and the majority of the population in the country engaged in agricultural activities which is considerably affected by rainfall variability. The majority of the nation's crops are rain-fed, making them particularly vulnerable to the fluctuation that can cause severe food insecurity, which can result in famine and poverty over the whole nation. The impact of rainfall variability was very serious in the pastoral areas that are largely inhabited by the pastoralist whose livelihood depend primarily on livestock farming. For this study, rainfall data were taken from Ethiopian Meteorology Institute (EMI) for 1981-2020 period and yield data were taken from Central Statistical Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia for 1994-2019 period. This study was briefly evaluated rainfall variability and its impact on yield and computed Rainfall Anomaly Index (RAI) for Kiremt cropping season in a pastoral area of Afar region, Ethiopia. Regression analysis for the Kiremt cropping season based on observed rainfall dataset was used in the study to further analyze the relationship between rainfall variability and yield. The temporal analysis of RAI clearly indicated that there were more dry years than wet years with varies magnitude. The year of 1984 and 2009 were found extremely dry with magnitude of -4.95 and -4.13, respectively whereas 1987, 2015, 2002, 2004 and 1997 were identified as very dry with magnitude of -3.92, -3.39, -3.16, -2.88 and -2.41, respectively. The year of 1988 and 1998 found extremely humid with magnitude of 5.87 and 5.33 whereas 2020, 1994, 2010 and 1992 were very humid with magnitude of 3.47, 3.20, 2.98 and 2.34 respectively. The outcome of the regression analysis showed a positive link between rainfall anomaly and crop production for the Kiremt cropping season, with yield increasing with a positive rainfall anomaly and rainfall anomaly accounting for 29.4% of crop yield. Keywords: Kiremt Cropping Season, Rainfall Anomaly Index, Pastoral Area, Regression, Yield DOI: 10.7176/JEES/12-9-03 Publication date: September 30 th 2022

Analysis of technical efficiency of irrigated tomato production in North Gondar Zone of Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a country with a total population of more than 110 million, of which about 80% of the total population is engaged in subsistence farming in rural areas. Although the agricultural sector plays a great role in the Ethiopian economy, it is characterized by low productivity due to technological and socioeconomic factors. Improving smallholder irrigated tomato production, and productivity would contribute to enhancing food security and alleviating poverty. Therefore, this study was investigated to fill this gap to analyze the technical efficiency of irrigated tomato production and its determinant factors in North Gondar Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. Primary data were collected from 160 farmers selected using a multistage sampling procedure and analyzed using descriptive statistics, a parametric stochastic frontier production function model. The stochastic frontier and Cobb–Douglas functional form with a one-step approach were employed to analyze efficiency and factors affecting efficiency in irrigated tomato production. The estimated gamma parameters indicated that 0.69% of the total variation in tomato output was due to technical inefficiency. The means technical efficiency was found 60%, and about 6480.19 kg of tomato output per hectare was lost due to inefficiency factors implying there is a room for improvement in technical efficiency by 40% with the present technology. The Stochastic Production Frontier (SPF) result revealed that plot size at 1% and UREA at 10% probability level significantly influenced tomato production. The socio-economic variables that exercised an important role for variations in technical efficiency positively were the level of education, TLU, fair water distribution service and water in the morning, and in contrast watering frequency, marketing training, and credit were found to increase inefficiency significantly among farm households. To get better farmers' efficiency in the production of irrigated tomatoes continuous marketing training should be established and strengthening the available farmers training center (FTC) to improve farm productivity. The government and any concerned bodies should be built irrigation canals and other alternatives to reduce watering frequency. There should be a timely and sufficient supply of UREA to improve farmers’ efficiency in the production of tomatoes.

Evil Challenges and the Economy of Ethiopia at the Era of COVID-19

This article aimed to investigate the challenges that Ethiopia faces during COVID-19. The article looks highly at COVID-19, political instability, desert locust and the ideal conflict between Ethiopia and Egypt on the great Ethiopian renaissance dam. Economic rescission, food insecurity and internal war are also the main topics clearly discussed. The results revealed that unemployment, inflation and income inequality are aggravated as pandemics arise. Thousands were killed and others were displaced due to internal political instability. Output reduction and famine resulted due to desert locust infestation. Bad political spirit is also one fact in Ethiopia due to ideal conflict with Egypt. Consequently, thousands have been arrested; killing innocent people, food insecurity, economic depression and displacement were highly aggravated. While other countries have been moving to prosperity, the Ethiopian economy has been challenged with stagnation. Therefore, the authors suggest that there should be strong intervention from both non-governmental organisation and the government of Ethiopia. Let Ethiopia’s recovery come to tell new development.

The contribution of climate change on the production and distributions of tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) Associated with its breeding enhancement phases in Ethiopia

Agriculture is the leading sector in Ethiopia and its economy highly depend on it. Hence it accounts about 50% GDP with 85% employment and more than 85% export revenue. Tef has the leading share of cereals in production area and vital in nutritional aspect more than 15% of all calories spent via 90 million people and exporting injera for foreign currency returns. Therefore, this review targeted with the objectives of delivering information on the role of Tef production in food security with global market value and the impact of climate change and challenge on production and productivity over its breeding enhancement. Currently agriculture highly exposed to climate changes and strongly distresses the productivity altering areas crops grown. Climate change supposed via alterations in variability of properties in temperature, rainfall, increased atmospheric CO2 levels and relative humidity. It is evidently known and highly vulnerable caused food insecurity. For instance, 20% of Ethiopian economy production deficit and 25% of poverty level is caused by rain fall variability. Tef is seasonal crop on rainfall all over Ethiopia, so its production distributions and productivity still very limited only at Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, Tigray and Benishangul Gumuz Regions while Afar, Somali, Harare and Gambela regions are not still included in its production profiles. There is also research gap with the relation and consequence of climate change. Hence filling the gaps will be critical in the future for improving the production efficiency via characterizing agro-ecologies and designing breeding strategies for stress environment variety development.

Determinants of human capital development in Ethiopian economy: Theory and empirical evidence

In line with the basic tenets of human capital development theory, the present study examines and presents the determinants of human capital development (Human Development Index [HDI]) in Ethiopia using time-series data from 1980/81 to 2019/20. Based on the Augmented Dickey–Fuller and Phillips–Perron unit root test results, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds co-integration and error correction models are employed. The bounds test indicated the existence of significant long-run equilibrium relationship between HDI and its human capital input indicators. Results of the estimated long-run selected model indicated that public recurrent expenditure on education and health as well as its capital education expenditures and basic health coverage have a positive and significant contribution in improving the HDI of the country. On the contrary, government development expenditure on health, population–physician, student–school and age dependency ratios has an adverse effect on human capital development of Ethiopia. On the other hand, the short-run error correction model showed that a temporary disequilibrium level of HDI in the previous period is corrected by approximately 79.37 per cent in the current period to restore to a long-run equilibrium. Thus, a concerted effort is needed to expand and use public expenditure on education and health in an economic, accountable and transparent way. Furthermore, the turnover level of qualified teachers and medical doctors has to be reduced in addition to building and upgrading adequate quality education and health infrastructures and facilities in the economy.

Entrepreneurship opportunities in Ethiopia and the role of educational institutions

The economy of Ethiopia is growing stronger with each passing day. This has led to an increase in business opportunities in the country. Ethiopia is expected to become an industrial-based economy. Ethiopia has maintained strong investor interest as one of the top investor destinations in Africa, becoming the second largest FDI recipient in Africa. The business ideas that you could consider to make the most of the present economic boom. If you have decided to start with your business idea in Ethiopia, you have taken the right decision. This is because the economy of Ethiopia has shown impressive growth from 2000 onwards. The expanding economy of Ethiopia has opened up opportunities in various sectors like agriculture, food processing, IT, and the service sector. Therefore, you have ample scope to succeed in building a successful business in Ethiopia. The infrastructure of Ethiopia has also improved to a great extent in the last decade and it’s easy to start and grow a business. Ethiopia offers a lot of opportunities to start small business. Several new reforms and different funding sources have been established to encourage new business ideas in Ethiopia.

Human capital accumulation and economic growth of Ethiopian economy

Economic theory, empirical studies and public policy have underlined the importance of the relationship between human capital accumulation and economic growth. Several developing countries have included human capital development as an integral part of their national development plans and have devoted huge financial resources as a cornerstone to promote economic growth. The purpose of this study is to examine the long-run effects of human capital accumulation on the economic growth of a developing economy using evidence from Ethiopia. The study employed the human capital theory of economic growth and the augmented Solow-Swan model as a theoretical framework, and the ARDL bounds co-integration and error correction mechanism for parameter estimation. Time-series data, covering the period 1980/81 to 2019/20, were employed to examine the long-run relationship between economic growth and its dynamic regressors of human capital indicators. The secondary and tertiary educational attainments of the labour force and life expectancy at birth have a significant positive effect on economic growth of Ethiopia, whereas primary education attainment and adult mortality rate have an insignificant negative effect. On the other hand, physical capital accumulation has positively contributed the country’s economic growth, but trade openness and external debt adversely affect it. Thus, it is suggested that the policymakers should strengthen the country’s institutional capacity while increasing the number of healthy members of the labour force that should also be equipped with quality-based educational attainments.

Factors Affecting Adoption Decision of Wheat Row Planting Technology: The Case of Agarfa District, Bale Zone of Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Ethiopian economy is highly dependent on agriculture, especially crop production takes the major share in economic growth. Hence, supporting the sector through introducing new agricultural technologies, like row planting technology is crucial. However, application of better technologies remained low in Ethiopia and also in the study area due to several factors. Therefore, study was to assess the status of adoption decision of wheat row planting technology and identify factors affecting it in Agarfa district. Two stage sampling procedure was used to collect data. In the first stage, three major wheat producing kebeles were selected purposively from twenty kebeles of the district. In the second stage, 165 household heads were selected randomly from three kebles based on probability proportional to population size. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics methods and binary logistic regression model was used. The result from binary logistic regression model shows that education level of household head, farming experience, availability of family labor, mass media exposure, and perception towards wheat row planting positively and significantly affected adoption decision of wheat row planting technology in the study area. Therefore, Based on the findings of this study it can be concluded that policy and development interventions should give emphasis towards improvement of such economical and institutional support system so as to achieve wider adoption decision of wheat row plating technology, increased production and productivity of smallholder farmer. Keywords: Adoption, Binary Logistic model, Technology, Wheat row planting, Agarfa. DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/115-03 Publication date: May 31 st 2022

Causes and Determinants of Manufacturing Value-added (MVA) Share Development in Ethiopia

Industrialization is not only a prerequisite for increasing an economy's competitiveness and living standards, but it is also required for developing economies to catch up to more developed. However, Ethiopia's average performance over the last four decades has been rather unsatisfactory, with MVA accounting for 5.6 % of GDP. The overarching goal of this article is to investigate the fundamental reasons why manufacturing has historically played such a minor role in Ethiopia's economy. It has also looked into the determinants factors that influence MVA. The study reviewed both theoretical and empirical literature. It used tables and figures to conduct descriptive, and the residual of the approximate Cobb-Douglas production function for total factor productivity (TFP) analyses. To estimate determinant factors, the autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model was used for time series data. The study identified key reasons and determinants that limit MVA share. Volatile political environments, the tendency of major fabrication subsectors to decline, TFP remaining small and stagnant, and others. According to the empirical study, in the long run, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and foreign direct investment (FDI) variables have shown a significant positive association, whereas the real exchange rate index has a negative correlation with MVA. While, in the short run, the later variables, and manufacturing imports have a positive significant impact.. The findings have policy implications such as proper policy design and stable implementation, avoiding premature deindustrialization, improving low TFP, attracting large-scale FDI, and increasing GDP per capita income, among other things Keywords: Manufacturing Value-added; Causes; Determinants; ARDL; Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/IEL/12-2-04 Publication date: May 31 st 2022

The Role of Researchers and Farmers Linkage in Agricultural Innovation System: Challenges and Intervention Options in Ethiopia

Agriculture is the backbone of Ethiopian economy. Conventional approaches to agricultural development in Ethiopia have tended to regard innovation as the result of research, and see its dissemination as linear technique limited to researchers, extension staff and farmers. This does not result in increasing agricultural production and productivity and resulted in food insecurity. However, Ethiopian agriculture is characterized by smallholders farming whose access to modern technology and basic education is very limited. This is due to many factors that are limiting sustainable agricultural development coming from loose linkage of researchers with farmers, weak institutional and technical innovation. Therefore, the main objective is to reviewed different challenges that are hindered researchers’ and farmers’ linkages and proposed alternative interventions that are improving the effectiveness linkage between different relevant agricultural actors in agricultural innovations system in Ethiopia. These linkage inhibiting factors knocked active participation of both farmers and researcher in research to bring social learning and innovation. Based on finding results of different literature reviews, six critical dimension factors that are hindering farmers participation from AIS to improve food security of household in Ethiopia. Those dimension challenge includes are researchers’ characteristics, farmers’ characteristics, researchers’ and farmers’ interaction, type of research project, research approach, and researchers’ and farmers’ benefit from interaction. Thus, policy framework that synergizes the relevant actors’ linkage in a sustainable manner should be in place to bring the intended growth and transformation in agriculture through technology and innovation as well as the agricultural extension system of the country should be revised and participating the farmers in all developmental research process. Keywords: Researchers, Farmers, Linkage, Agricultural Innovation system, Challenges, Intervention Options, Ethiopia: DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/13-9-01 Publication date: May 31 st 2022

Assessing the Opportunities Available to Banks in Financing Horticulture Sub-Sector in Ethiopia

This assessment is aimed at conducting exploring the opportunities that Banks in Ethiopia have in working in with horticultural industry players. This export sales trend of horticulture has shown an immense fluctuation from the selected more latest year 2009/10 to 2018/2019 by using qualitative and quantitative data analysis. This, the variation was shows alarming increase had shown significant to the total export sales gain of the country for the sector where it was become cover about 10% whole export commodity of 2009/10 to 2018/19. From this assessment it was found that horticulture export commodity of Ethiopia plays significant role in foreign exchange gains earning and competency in the international arena which makes the banks to working with makes difference. Despite, several challenges and opportunities namely tumultuous weather, seasonal cyclones, occasional drought, demographic pressure, industrialization, urbanization and unprecedented use of insecticide & pesticide and compulsion for migration of rural masses to urban areas, especially for their livelihood. Ethiopia is the second largest supplier and exporter of horticulture produce in Africa after Kenya, due to is currently the fifth foreign revenue earner to the Ethiopian economy and it is one of the commodity a boost to the export sector of the country, so it is better for banking working in horticulture and the sector key players. In general, over the past few years, horticulture has made remarkable progress in terms of expansion in area and production under different crops, increase in productivity, crop diversification, technological interventions for production and post-harvest and forward linkages through value addition and marketing which makes benefit the banks involving in the sector. Keywords: Horticulture, Horticulture production, Value chain, Key player DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/13-9-03 Publication date: May 31 st 2022

Major features of Ethiopia’s new investment law: an appraisal of their policy implications

This paper analyses the major features of the 2020 Ethiopian investment law and their policy implications. The law has liberalized many areas of the Ethiopian economy to pave the way for increasing the private sector’s share and diminishing the Government’s role. It adopted the negative list approach to liberalization to simplify the process of determining investment fields that are open for foreign investors. It laid out procedures for handling investors’ grievances and for resolving investor–State disputes, principally through domestic institutions. It also obliges investors to discharge their corporate social responsibilities. The paper argues that these features of the law demand transparent, efficient and competent government institutions to properly regulate and protect investments and to attain sustainable development as the ultimate goal of the law. For this purpose, it also argues that two factors are essential: ensuring effective institutional coordination and supplementing the mandatory corporate social responsibility requirements with voluntary engagement. In addition, it contends that the Government needs to strengthen linkages between foreign and domestic investment, promote decent jobs and sustainability, enhance human resources and infrastructure, and build a stable political system to reap the significant development benefits of investment, as envisaged in the investment law. The paper also suggests that other countries, in Africa and beyond, can benefit from applying these lessons in designing or reforming their investment policies to maximize the sustainable development gains from foreign investment.

A meta analysis on the effect of agricultural extension on farmers’ market participation in Ethiopia

Agriculture is the backbone of Ethiopian economy. Majority of the farmers produce agricultural product for their own home consumption and the production system is not market oriented. The low status of market oriented agriculture is the result of weak institutional performance such as agricultural extension. Different results on the effect of agricultural extension on market participation of farmers depicted contradictory results (positive, negative and no effect). In this study to assess the direction of effect, a Meta Analysis is performed using 16 studies which were selected based on PRISMA criteria. Based on the random effect model, the result depicted that agricultural extension service have positive effect, even if the effect is not strong enough, on the market participation decision of agricultural producers. Moreover, the subgroup analysis showed different effect of agricultural extension service for different producers. The effect for pulse crops, cereal crops and horticultural crops is strong whereas, for vegetables and livestock it is very poor. Therefore, market oriented extension service should be provided for all producers, particularly for vegetables and livestock producers, to improve the welfare and the food security status of the farmers.

Heterogeneity, Transient and Persistent Production Efficiencies of Major Crops in Southern Ethiopia

Agricultural productivity is a cornerstone for the economy of Ethiopia to ensure rural transformation. However, the increment of productivity of crops has slow progress. Hence, this study undertook to separate farm heterogeneity, short-run and long-run inefficiencies of productivity in southern Ethiopia. The study used the models of decomposing technical efficiency through various techniques like 4-random error components of stochastic frontier panel data models to distinguish between time-invariant farm-heterogeneity, persistence, and short-run inefficiencies. Thus, models used for the analysis have shown different estimates of overall efficiency levels. Fixed-effect and Kumbhakar-Heshmati models did not separate unobserved persistent efficiency from farm-heterogeneity efficiency. The estimated efficiency by the Kumbhakar-Lien-Hardaker model (0.4449) is significantly higher than the mean of the fixed-effect model with much lower variations. Mean transient efficiencies gleaned from true-fixed-effect, consistent true-fixed-effect, and Kumbhakar-Lien-Hardaker models become nearly equal except, the Kumbhakar-Heshmati model indicated that farmers faced severe persistent productivity inefficiency problems. Average technical change in 2011/12 was 20.67% and declined much more to 9.44% and 5.82% in 2013/14 and 2015/16, sequentially. According to the estimation of overall technical efficiency, it is possible to capture about 39% to 99% of the untapped production in the crop subsector of Southern Ethiopia. Therefore, there was a decline in the growth rate of fertilizer used and land size covered by considered crops in the area. Land covered was declined by 3.06% for the considered crops from 2013/14 to 2015/16 production period. In the mean summary of technical efficiency at the zonal level, the aggregate persistent efficiency is lower than the transient one for all the zones. It confirmed that inefficiency varies from zone to zone between zones and household to household within the zone during the survey years. Thus, the policymaker should pinpoint the causes of inefficiencies separated in the time factors to improve the productivity of considered crops in the study area. A policy point that treats the persistent, transient, and farm-specific inefficiency enhancing conditions has to be set separately in each zona of Southern Ethiopia. Moreover, the greater focus of the policy is to alleviate the persistent inefficiency increasing factors in the study area.