Determinants of Rural Household Income in Gedeo zone Yirga Cheffe woreda

Abstract

Even though, Yirga chef e Wereda is one of the most cereal crop producers in Gedeozone the rural farming households’ income is very low. Thus, this study, focuse donidentifying the micro-level factors that determining the rural household income in the Wereda. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted for the selection of sample respondents. The district was stratified in to three kebeles based on distance from woreda's town and three kebeles were selected using simple random sampling. Usingsimple random sampling technique 98 sample respondents were selected from eachkebeles. Data was collected using structured questionnaires and interview. Boththedescriptive and econometrics statistics (OLS estimation model) were appliedfor analyzing data. Descriptive statistics were applied to characterize the sample households’ demographic, economic, institutional and environmental factors. TheOLS estimation result indicated that from nine explanatory variables five variables which are, Education (EDUC) at 5%, of farm activity (OFFA) at 5%, Soil fertility of land (SFERT) at 1%, CREDIT at 10%, improved farm input (IMFI) at 5%significance level. Generally, both the descriptive and econometrics statistics wereanalyzed and clearly interpreted. It is recommended that the farmers should adopt credit; farmers should be allowed to have long term of -farm employment to augment the farming sector