Major Types of Risk Sources Perceived by Tomato Producing Smallholder Farmers the Case of Dugda District, East Shewa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Risk is a central issue in rural areas that affects many different aspects of people’s livelihoods in the developing world. Unless well managed, risks in agriculture can slow development and hinder poverty reduction. Smallholder farmers’ perceptions of risk are therefore important in understanding their risk. Hence, this study aims at analyzing perceived risk source in tomato production using data collected from 167 tomato producing smallholder farmers from four kebeles of Dugda District, East Shewa Zone central rift valley of Ethiopia. The study combines data obtained from tomato producing smallholder farmers, Descriptive statistics, likert scale and Principal component analysis were employed for data analysis. A Likert scale, based on farmers’ perception, was used to rank the various sources of tomato production risks. The mean scores results, derived based on Likert scales, indicated that production and market risks were perceived to be the major risk sources. Results show that using principal components analysis, multiple sources of risks were identified. Principal Components (PCs) explained that 58.2% of the variations were extracted. The major risk sources were also identified as production, investment, environmental, market and socio-economic risk by the surveyed smallholder farmers. The findings suggested that special attention should be given to pest and disease, market risk and investment risk in the study area, so that tomato producer smallholder farmers can benefit from improvement in risk management.

Keywords: Risk, Risk Sources, Smallholder farmer, PCA, Dugda District

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-13-02

Publication date:July 31^st 2019