Crop diversification level and its determinants in Ethiopia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Geographical location of the study area (Arsi and West Arsi zones).

Table 1. Distribution of the sample in districts, Kebeles and households

Sample Districts			Sample Kebeles
Districts	Total HHs	Sample HHs	Kebeles	Total HHs	Sample HHs
Kofele	22486	83	Gurmicho	765	45
			Guchi	758	41
Gedeb Asasa	27842	102	D/Walta’i	1015	50
			Huruba	1062	52
Hetosa	17788	88	Shaki	834	42
			Boru Lencha	914	46
L/Bilbilo	22455	112	Dawa Bursa	825	61
			Chiba Mikael	684	51
Total	90,571	385		6857	385

Table 2. Variables included in the model along with their expected signs

Variable sign	Variable type	Expected
Crop diversification index (SDI)	Continuous (Index)	dependent
Household head sex (SEX)	Dummy (1=male/0=female)	+
Farming experience (EXPERIENCE):	Continuous (years)	+
Educational background (EDUCATION):	Continuous (Grade)	+
Household’s family size (FAMILY_SIZE):	Count (number)	+
Household dependency ratio (DEPENDENCY):	Continuous (ratio)	-
Total landholding (LANDHOLDING):	Continuous (hectare)	+
Livestock possession (TLU):	Continuous (TLU)	+
Contact with development agent (DA_CONTAC)	Count (number)	+
Access to credit (CREDIT_ACC):	Dummy (1=yes/0=no)	+
Level of farm mechanization index (FMI):	Continuous (Index)	-/+
Land fragmentation (FRAGMENT):	Continuous (no. of plots)	+
Off-farm income participation (OFF-FARM)	Dummy (1=yes/0=no)	-
Agroecological zones (AEZs):	Dummy (0=highland/1=mid)	+
Distance to main market place (MMKT_DIST):	Continuous (Kms)	-

Table 3. Crop types grown and mean farm land allocation (ha)

Crop type	land allocated	Percent	Crop type	land allocated	Percent
Wheat	0.97	50.00%	Vegetables*	0.04	2.06%
Barley	0.43	22.17%	Potatoes	0.04	2.06%
Teff	0.08	4.12%	Oilseeds*	0.02	1.24%
Faba bean	0.22	11.86%	Lentils	0.04	1.84%
Field pea	0.08	4.64%	Chickpeas	0.02	1.24%
Total	1.94	100%

*Vegetables (Ethiopian cabbage, head cabbage and red pepper); **oilseed (rapeseeds & linseeds).

Table 4. Farmers’ perception on their crop production system

Crop production system	Frequency	Percent		Cumulative
Diversified	318	81.54%		81.54%
Specialized	72	18.46%		100.00
Reasons diversification		Score	Percent	Rank
To mitigate risk of market and price fluctuation		233	73.27%	1
To be food self-sufficient and food secured		199	62.58%	2
To mitigate risk of crop failure		196	61.64%	3
To diverse labor pressure of peak agricultural seasons		55	17.30%	4

Table 5. Household distribution by level of crop diversification index (CDI)

Category of CDI	Frequency	Percent	Cumulative
Low (0–0.38)	98	25.13%	25.13%
Medium (0.39–0.63)	170	43.59%	68.72%
High (>0.63)	122	31.28%	100.00%
Variable	Mean	Std. dev.	Min.	Max
Crop diversification index	0.48	0.26	0	1

Figure 2. Boxplots of CDI by AEZs, land fragmentation and mechanization level.

Table 6. Model fitness test (parallel regression assumption and collinearity diagnosis)

Test types	Chi-square value				Significance (probability)
omodel test	7.75				0.9558 (not significant)
brant test	8.42				0.866 (not significant)
gologit2 test	8.98				0.9141 (not significant)
Collinearity	Diagnostics
Variables			VIF	Tolerance	Variables		VIF	Tolerance
Household head sex			1.07	0.9335	DA contact		1.09	0.9209
Farming experience			1.52	0.656	Access to credit		1.05	0.952
Educational background			1.37	0.7306	Mechanization level		1.28	0.7829
Family size			1.29	0.777	Number of plots		1.19	0.8376
Dependency ratio			1.14	0.8784	Off-farm income		1.05	0.9503
Total landholding			1.32	0.7551	Agroecology		1.48	0.6764
Livestock (TLU)			1.53	0.6527	Main market distance		1.19	0.8424
Mean VIF	1.26

Table 7. Odds ratios for ordered logit model estimation

Crop Diversification level	Coefficient	z-value
HH heads’ sex	0.7492(.544)	-0.4
Farm experience (years)	0.9980(0.010)	-0.19
Education (years)	0.9929(0.031)	-0.22
Family size	1.0472(0.027)*	1.76
Dependency ratio (ratio)	0.9337(0.071)	-0.9
Total farm landholding (ha)	1.9286(0.227)***	5.57
Livestock hold (TLU)	0.9824(0.032)	-0.54
Contact with DA (count)	0.9797(0.253)	-0.08
Accessed credit (yes/no)	1.3335(0.402)	0.95
Mechanization level (index)	2.6455(1.429)*	1.8
Land fragmentation (no. of plots)	2.7155(0.347)***	7.82
Non/off farm income (yes/no)	1.1678(0.337)	0.54
AEZs (highland/mid)	0.4491(0.123)***	-2.93
Distance to main market (Km)	1.0193(0.024)	0.8
/cut1	1.2151(0.895)
/cut2	3.6576(0.917)

Note: *, **, *** significant at 10%, 5% and 1% level of significance; values in parenthesis are standard errors; LR chi2(14)= 157.83, Prob > chi2= 0.000, Log likelihood = −312.92; Pseudo R² = 0.2014.

Table 8. Marginal effects estimate for crop diversification level after ologit

	Ologit ME forLow CD level	Ologit ME forMedium CD level	Ologit ME forHigh CD level
Crop Diversification level	(dy/dx)	(dy/dx)	dy/dx)
HH heads’ sex	0.0400(0.090)	0.0218(0.072)	-0.0613(0.162)
Farm experience (years)	0.0003(0.001)	0.0001(0.001)	-0.0004(0.002)
Education (years)	0.0011(0.005)	0.0004(0.002)	-0.0014(0.006)
Family size	-0.0069(0.004)*	-0.0024(0.002)	0.0093(0.005)*
Dependency ratio (ratio)	0.0103(0.011)	0.0035(0.004)	-0.0138(0.015)
Total farmland (ha)	-0.0984(0.018)***	0.0337(0.015)**	0.1321(0.025)***
Livestock hold (TLU)	0.0027(0.005)	0.0009(0.002)	-0.0036(0.007)
Contact with DA (count)	0.0031(0.038)	0.0012(0.014)	-0.0041(0.052)
Accessed credit (yes/no)	-0.0404(0.039)	-0.0200(0.027)	0.0603(0.066)
Mechanization level (index)	-0.1458(0.081)*	-0.0499(0.034)	0.1957(0.109)*
Number of plots (counts)	-0.1497(0.020)***	-0.0512(0.0221)**	0.2009(0.027)***
Non-farm income (yes/no)	-0.0225(0.040)	-0.0093(0.0202)	0.0319(0.060)
AEZs (highland/mid)	0.1200(0.041)***	0.0412(0.021)*	-0.1610(0.055)***
Main market distance (Km)	-0.0029(0.003)	-0.0010(0.001)	0.0038(0.005)

Y= P(CDI_Catg=1) =18.35%; y = P(CDI_Catg=2) = 53.75; and y = P(CDI_Catg=3) =27.89%.

Annex 1. Boxplots of crop diversification level by AEZs.

Correlation coefficients between explanatory variables

SEX	EXPERIENCE	EDUCATION	HH_SIZE	DEPENDENCY	T_LAND
SEX	1.0000
EXPERIENCE	0.042	1.0000
EDUCATION	0.117	-0.4237	1.0000
HH_SIZE	-0.011	0.2796	-0.2192	1.0000
DEPENDENCY	-0.131	-0.1154	0.0116	0.1752	1.0000
T_LAND	0.020	0.2235	-0.029	0.2339	-0.0776	1.000
TLU	-0.049	0.3064	-0.095	0.3176	0.1135	0.308
DA_CON	-0.048	-0.003	0.088	0.0450	0.0473	0.143
CREDIT_ACC	-0.031	-0.032	0.029	-0.1243	-0.0116	-0.059
FMI	0.023	0.063	0.116	0.0370	-0.1084	0.044
FRAGMENT	-0.009	0.132	-0.011	0.0215	0.0061	0.206
OFF-FARM	0.030	-0.006	-0.031	0.0230	-0.1194	0.052
AEZs	0.154	0.076	0.097	0.0066	-0.1548	0.164
MKT_DIST	0.092	0.068	-0.086	0.0917	0.0385	-0.037
TLU	DA_CON	CRDT_ACC	FMI	FRAGM	OFF-FARM	AEZs		MKT_DIST
TLU	1.000
DA_CON	0.122	1.0000
CRDT_ACC	-0.024	0.1300	1.0000
FMI	-0.1492	-0.0115	-0.0481		1.000
FRAGM	0.1854	0.0889	0.0364		-0.270 1.0000
OFF-FARM	0.0467	0.0350	-0.0630		0.038	0.0322	1.0000
AEZs	-0.2449	-0.0412	-0.0837		0.3662 -0.1818	0.0113	1.000
MKT_DIST	0.1477	-0.134	-0.0671		-0.022 -0.0614	-0.1432	0.194		1.000