Determinants of Market Outlet Choice of the Smallholder Mango Producers: The Case of Boloso Bombe Woreda, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A Multivariate Probit Approach
This study aimed at identifying of factors affecting market outlet choice of the smallholder mango producers in Boloso Bombe District, Southern Ethiopia. The survey was conducted in four randomly selected kebele administrations in the district. About 120 smallholder mango producers have been selected randomly from the four kebele administrations proportionally. Both qualitative and quantitative types of data were used. Sample households were used as source of the primary data used for the study. Both close ended and open ended (semi-structured) questionnaire was prepared to collect the data. Personal interview, focus group discussion and group discussions was used to capture adequate data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Multivariate probit model was used to identify factors affecting market outlet choices of the smallholder mango producers. The result obtained from multivariate probit model indicated that variables such as family size, distance to the market, quantity of mango produced, price offered, access to market information and access to non- farm income determined the decision of choice of wholesaler, collector, retailer and consumer market outlets at different significance level. Therefore, variables affecting the choice of wholesaler and consumer market outlet should be promoted and farm gate and retail price intervention is quite important to maximize the economic benefit of farmers. Quantity of mango produced and price should be promoted and get special attention to increase the contribution of mango to the household livelihood.
