ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1548304
This article is part of the Research TopicRegenerative Agriculture and Support in Changing Policy Environments: Farmers’ Rights, Contract Farming, and Navigating towards Sustainable PracticesView all 10 articles
The Crop Commercialization Impact of Cluster Farming Initiative in Northwestern Ethiopia
Provisionally accepted
- 1Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
- 2Yom Postgraduate College, Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- 3College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia
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Introduction: In Ethiopia and other developing countries, the commercialization of smallholder agriculture is a key strategy for achieving agricultural and overall economic growth. Crop cluster farming has emerged as a growing trend in Ethiopia to support these commercialization efforts. This study assesses the impact of cluster farming on crop commercialization among smallholder farmers in Northwestern Ethiopia. It offers novel insights by considering the commercialization of both cluster and non-cluster crops, highlighting potential spillover benefits of cluster farming practices on non-target commodities—an area often overlooked in prior research.Methods: This study used a cross-sectional research design. Data were gathered from 421 farming households through face-to-face interviews. The data was analyzed using Endogenous Switching Regression and inferential statistics, including t-tests and chi-square tests. Commercialization was measured using two indicators: the total value of crops sold and the proportion of crops sold.Results: The results showed that, on average, participating households earned 1,106 USD annually from crop sales, while non-participating households earned 731 USD. Additionally, participant households sold on average 50% of the crops they produced, compared to 36% for non-participants. Similarly, households engaged in cluster farming of wheat, maize, and teff reported higher incomes and proportion of sales than those who did not engage.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that there is a positive association between cluster farming participation and commercialization in both indices. Thus, the scaling up of cluster farming to a wider farming community is recommended to enhance the commercialization of smallholder farmers.
Keywords: Commercialization, Cluster farming, Endogenous switching regression, impact, Ethiopia
Received: 19 Dec 2024; Accepted: 16 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gidelew, Alemu and Kassie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Getachew Eshetu Gidelew, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
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