Knowledge systems and value chain integration: the case of linseed production in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study uses data from a sample of 150 oilseed farming households from Arsi Robe, Ethiopia, to assess the impact of different knowledge bases (education, training and experience) and their interactions on linseed productivity.

Methodology: A multiple regression analysis was employed to assess the combined effect of the knowledge bases, factors such as age of the household head, land size, marketing channels and geophysical factors (such as land slope) on linseed productivity.

Findings: The findings reveal no differences in productivity between trained and untrained farmers. They further show that training and the interaction between training and experience positively influence productivity. Our findings, however, reveal farmer education to have an inverse yet insignificant effect on productivity. Furthermore, we found that factors such as the slope of the land and the choice of marketing channel also play an important role in influencing productivity.

Practical implications: Moving away from the traditional top-down approach could be the answer to avoid a mismatch between the information given by trainers and what the farmers actually need.

Theoretical implications: The study used interaction variables of knowledge bases, and attempted to demonstrate the importance of a tacit knowledge base, which is often not well documented and therefore neglected in research.

Originality/value: The research demonstrates the combined effects that interactions between several knowledge bases have on the productivity of linseed farmers.

KEYWORDS:

• Education
• Ethiopia
• knowledge systems
• linseed
• market knowledge
• training

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the assistance of SNV (Netherlands Development Organization) and the support of Didaa Cooperative Union in Arsi Robe during the execution of the fieldwork. Any errors or omissions in the article are entirely the authors’ responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Clarietta Chagwiza is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of South Africa.

Roldan Muradian is Professor at the Faculty of Economics at Universidade Federal Fluminense in Brazil.

Ruerd Ruben is a coordinator of the Food Security, Value Chains & Impact Analysis in the Agricultural Economics Institute (LEI), Wageningen University.

Notes

1 Besides oilseeds, the cooperative also collect and market other crops such as spices, teff and wheat, and engages in provision of inputs such as fertilizers and service goods; hence, linseed is not its core business.

2 Seed multipliers are farmers who were selected to receive additional training on the production of improved linseed and quality control.

Additional information

Funding

This research was financially supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) – WOTRO Science for Global Development [grant number WCI 46-588].