DETERMINANTS OF HOUSEHOLD PARTICIPATION IN URBAN AGRICULTURE: THE CASE OF GURAGE ZONE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Urban agriculture plays a very important role in improving household income and decreasingpoverty. Despite its significant role in fulfilling the basic demand of low-income families,household’s participation were very low. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify factorsthat determine household’s participation in urban agriculture and assess the impact ofparticipation on household income in Gurage zone. The study utilized both primary andsecondary data sources, and a multi-stage sampling technique was employed to gatherinformation from 204 households using a structured questionnaire. The logistic regression modelwas employed to analyze the determinants of participation in urban agriculture and propensityscore matching was used to analyze the impact of participation on household income. The resultsof the study show that, 25.76% of the households were practicing in urban agriculture.Household’s decision to participate in urban agriculture was influenced by household sex,education level, income from other sources, access to credit, access to water, access to improvedinputs and access to extension services. The impact analysis results of this study show that urbanagriculture has a positive significant impact on household total income. The average treatmenteffect on the treated was ETB 6803 and it was significant at 1% significance level. In conclusion,this study suggest that urban agriculture practice should be encouraged by governmental andnon-governmental organizations through provision of credit and promotion of alternative watersources to increase urban agriculture participation in the study area