Analysis Of Logistics Chain Of Fertilizer From Port And Improved Seed From Production Area To Farmers

Ethiopia is a landlocked country and movement of the import and export commodities depends onrnneighboring coastal countries port. The country is challenged in traversing through the neighboringrncountries due to high port charges and less effective logistics systems in the inland activities of importrn–export commodities. The development of logistics concept is in an infant stage which has not givenrnspecial concern till recent years. There is a larger gap between the industry development and thernlogistics concept nationally.rnThis thesis was to assess the logistics chain of fertilizer from Djibouti port and maize improved seedrnfrom production area, observe the seasonality of fertilizer flow, minimize the logistics chain costs andrnlead time, identification of barriers of fertilizer flow throughout the distribution network and makernrecommendations for efficient and effective logistics chain.rnLogistics chain of fertilizer was not well coordinated between the stakeholders. Warehouse-transportrninterface was the main challenge in overall efficiencies of logistics chain. The challenges are mainlyrnunloading problems due to uncoordinated cooperative unions with transporters and importers. Laterndelivery of fertilizer to farmers especially during the farming time affected the effective application tornthe farm. The maize improved seed price was observed incomparable with the selling prices ofrnfarmers’ product of similar quantity.rnSeasonality of fertilizer flow from port was checked with one way ANOVA comparison test usingrnSPSS 15.0. Demand forecasting was done with time series method and the forecasted value wasrnadjusted with seasonal index. Location analysis was done with center of gravity method using thernannual consumption of fertilizer for each zone of the country. The coordinates of each zone for thisrnmethod was determined from GIS 9.3 based on the mean center of woredas’ population within thernzone. To determine the dominant consumer level of fertilizer in Ethiopia, Cluster Mapping and hotspotrnanalysis was made using GIS 9.3 based on the average six year consumption levels of each zone.rnRoute optimization was also made with GIS 9.3 from Djibouti port to the central warehouses. Thernresult might not be reliable for some routes as it was not used travel time for the optimization insteadrntravel distance which provided the shortest possible distance for the un updated national digital roadrnnetworks.rnThe pair wise mean comparison of the four quarters indicated that there were a significant differentrnfertilizer flow during quarter 1 (September, October, November) with Quarter 2 (December, January,rnFebruary) and Quarter 3(March, April, May) but not different with Quarter 4(June, July, August).rnUsing location analysis, proposed warehouses were suggested for efficient distributions of fertilizerrnthroughout the country. The optimum route obtained in some cases required to be checked accountingrnfor road condition.

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