Determinants of the Market Outlet Choice of Bamboo Culms (Yushania alpine) Producers in Banja District, Western Ethiopia

Abstract

Bamboo meets a growing and various bamboo product demand and generates revenue. The study is aimed at analyzing the critical variables that affect the choice of alternative bamboo market outlets. By using two stages sampling procedures, 114 bamboo producers were randomly and proportionally selected. The determinants that affect the choice of bamboo market outlet were analyzed by multivariate probit model. Based on the model result, the probability of bamboo producers to select wholesaler, retailer, processor, and local traders’ outlet were 16.8%, 46.2%, 60.8%, and 54.3%, respectively. The probability of success and failure to select four market outlets were 2.5% and 2.2%, respectively. The result of MVP revealed that family size, total land holding size, amount of culm production, farming experience, distance to the market, and silviculture management practice affected the probability of farmers’ market outlet choice. Therefore, improving the producers’ knowledge and skills through capacity building and creating framers’ organization for collective action can help producers select the right market to sell bamboo products.