DETERMINANTS OF ONION PRODUCTION IN FOGERA DISTRICT, SOUTH GONDAR ZONE

Abstract

In Ethiopia, Onion is considered as one of the most important vegetable crops produced on small scale. It also occupies an economically important place among vegetables in the country. The area under onion is increasing from time to time mainly because of its high profitability per unit area and ease of production and the increase in small scale production areas. The crop is produced both under rain fed season and under off season through irrigation. Although the onion output is preferable and useful for the society, its production activity in the study area is not that much high as expected from the area. Therefore, the study tried to see the factors determining onion production in fogera District. To achieve this objective of the study, data were composed from 197 respondents in the study area. Multiple linear regression model and descriptive statistics were used for analyzing the required data. The result of the study showed that the production of inion in fogera district was constant in both 2008/9 and 2009/10 years however in the last four consistency years , onion production was become increasing. Household size, marketing cost and production cost were found to have a negative and significant influence on onion crop production activity. While education level of the household head, lagged prices, total area of onion cultivated coverage in hectare, quantity of inputs used ,sex of household head and access to irrigation head were found to have a positive influence on onion production. Therefore, in order to make onion production profitable and productive in the study area, policy makers should focus on irrigation activity through the development of irrigation infrastructure and they should be focused on providing advice and training to use the recommended fertilizer, providing credit with reasonable interest rate and market related studies are vital. In addition to that to decrease marketing costs, it is recommended to decrease players involved in the market, like encouraging direct sales of farmers produce to wholesaler and more particularly linking small farmers produce to retail chain.