Smallholder Vegetable Farmers' Choice of Agricultural Marketing Channels in Maekel Region, Eritrea

One of the major problems of agricultural development, in developing and transition economies, is the lack market and marketing channels for agricultural produce. Market channel choice makes important contributions to the incomes and other livelihood attributes among smallholder farmers in developing countries. However, smallholder farmers in developing countries do not use output markets effectively due to a number of factors. The objective of the study was to assess the technical, institutional and demographic factors that determine marketing channel choices of small scale vegetable farmers in Maekel region, Eritrea. Data were collected from 206 randomly selected vegetable farming households from 13 villages. Three marketing channels were identified in the study area. These are farm-gate sales, private traders and a combination of both. The result of the study revealed that almost half of the farmers (52%) use farm-gate, while 24% and 23% of the farmers choose private traders and both marketing channels for the sale of their vegetable produce, respectively. Moreover, result of the multinomial regression reveals that education, gender of household head, household size, age of household head, distance from the market, availability of road infrastructure and social network of farmers significantly influence marketing channel selection of smallholder farmers. The results of the study are used to draw policy recommendations that improve marketing channel selection of smallholder vegetable farmers.