Contributions Of Cluster Farming To The Livelihood Of Farmers A Comparative Study At Siyadebrina Wayu Woreda North Shewa Ethiopia

The idea of the Agricultural cluster was introduced in Ethiopia together with Agriculturalrncommercialization cluster as a means of integrating different prioritized interventions in therntransformation Agenda, within specific geographies targeting a limited number of high-valuerncommodities during the first Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) of Ethiopia. This researchrnpaper is focused on studying the contributions of cluster farming to the livelihood of farmers, atrnSiyadebrina Wayu woreda, North Shewa, Ethiopia. The major problems related to clusterrnfarming are like poor financial access, low market linkage, low mechanization and poorrninfrastructure. The overall objective of this research was to examine the contributions of clusterrnfarming to the livelihood of the farmers at Siyadebrina Wayu woreda of North Shewa zone. Thernstudy used both qualitative and quantitative methods. Primary and secondary data’s wererngenerated by employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. Purposive and simplernrandom sampling techniques were applied to select 130 cluster farming participants’ farmersrnand 80 businesses as usual farmers were involved farmers. In the process of the research bothrncluster farming participants’ as well as farmers who were not involved in the cluster farmingrnwere involved. The quantitative data generated were analyzed using SPSS software. Thernresearch finding reveals that farmers, who were engaged in Cluster farming, get better amountrnproduction of wheat per hectare of land as compared to business as usually farmers Thernresearch further reveal as the market linkage created among the cluster participant farmers andrnthe Farmer union of the kebele, with the aim of creating better opportunities for clusterrnparticipant farmers, was not as such strong due to the overall limited capacity of the farmerrnunion. Interms of getting modern inputs like fertilizers and improved seeds the research provedrnas there were delays in getting them on timely bases. On the other hand in relation to combinersrnand harvesters, even though there was a high demand in getting them on rental bases tornovercome the high costs of daily laborers and untimely rain which affects their products while inrnthe field, the research proved as farmers were not able to get combiners and harvesters. Intermsrnof other social indicators the research further proved as the cluster participants farmers havernbetter improvement in terms of sending their children to school, depositing money and having anrnassets, constructing separate house for their cattle’s and changing their life style as compared tornthe non-cluster participant farmers. Finally this study recommends that cluster farming shouldrnbe strengthened to the extent of involving more number of farmers and by being introducingrndifferent improved seeds in the system and by providing all the necessary advisor service to thernfarmers through the woreda office of Agriculture and to strengthening the market linkage withrnthe farmers union.

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