Farmers’ Participation in Farmers Research Groups and Its Contribution on Their Income from Rice: Empirical Evidence from Rice Production System of Fogera District, Ethiopia

Abstract

Farmers Research Group is one of the participatory agricultural research approaches aimed to improve the conventional top-down research approach that doesn’t fully address the needs of subsistence and smallholder farmer. Based on this, Adet agricultural research center is implementing this approach at Fogera rice producing district of Ethiopia. The main objective of this study was to assess the contribution of the Farmers Research Group approach on farmers’ gross margin earning level from rice production and its determining factors of contribution. A multistage purposive and random sampling technique was employed to collect cross-sectional survey data from a total of 120 Farmers Research Groups approach participant and non-participant households in 2012/13 at four kebeles of Fogera district. The study employed the Treatment effect model of Heckman two step procedure to measure contribution of the Farmers Research Group approach on gross margin earning level of participant farmers from rice production. The second stage estimation results of the treatment effect model showed that family size in adult equivalent, access to research, use of improved rice variety and dummy participation in farmers research groups approach have significant relation to gross margin earnings from rice. The gross margin analysis indicated that a farmer could generate additional gross margin of Birr 5,378.97 per hectare of rice being participating in the approach than being non-participant while this figure was Birr 5,772.06 in the econometric model analysis that indicates the profitability of the approach. Therefore, implementing FRG research approach could lead to the enhancement of farmers income from rice.

Key words: Rice, Farmers Research Groups, gross margin, Treatment effect, Fogera