Socio-economic characteristics of agricultural households and their relationship to value of crop production and food availability in West Shewa Zone, Oromia Region
2005
Mekonen Tesfaye | Teshome Adno | Fiona Meehan | Nick Chisholm
In July 2001 the total population size of West Shewa Zone was estimated to be 2.86 million with a population density of 144 persons per square kilometers. Of the total population women make up 50.7%. Ninety percent of the population resides in rural areas and the mainstay of the economy is agriculture. There is little documented evidence regarding the impact of socio-economic characteristics on farm production in Ethiopia. This paper aims at contributing to knowledge of interrelationships between socio-economic factors and farm production. The study uses data from the 2001/2 Ethiopian Agricultural Sample Enumeration (EASE) for West Shewa Zone in Oromia Region. Data were analysed using SPSS software. When considered alone and together sex of head of household, education of head of household, household labour, number of literates and number of persons engaged in farming are found to have statistically significant relationships with value of crop production. Interestingly, female-headed households) show significantly higher value of production per hectare per annum at 1325 Birr than their male-headed counterparts at 1291 Birr (p0.05). However, mean total value of crop production for male-headed household is significantly higher than that of female-headed households. Thereare, statistically significant differences in value of production between categories of education of head of household. Households with illiterate heads produced crops with total mean value of 1282 birr per hectare, which is significantly less at p0.001 level than that of heads with beyond elementary educational level (1355 Birr). The study shows that educating even at least one member of household matters in terms of value of crop production. The study also reveals positive and moderate correlation (r
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