Demand Assessment of Soil Fertilizer Among Smallholder Farmers in Haramaya District, Oromia Regional State

Fertilizers increase agricultural production and productivity of the country which is important to achieve food security of the rural people. The role of the agricultural sector in terms of its contribution to the economy of Ethiopia is large. To accelerate the sector’s growth and increase its contribution to the overall economic growth, modern agricultural inputs particularly use of chemical fertilizers for crop production plays a significant role in yield increase. That means fertilizers are substances, which are added to the soil to supplement the soil with those elements required in the nutrition of plants. The main objective of the study was to assess smallholder farmer’s fertilizer demand in Haramaya district. In the study both primary and secondary data are used to investigate various factor which affects fertilizer demand of smallholder farmers. Primary data was collected from 155 sample respondents selected by using simple random sampling technique from the total household of the study area. To analyze the study descriptive and econometric data analysis were used like frequency and OLS regression. The study result indicates that variables like education, income, expenditure and farmers perception about farm land significantly affect the demand of fertilizer but the other variable like distance, extension service and didn’t had significance influence on farmers demand to fertilizer. The study recommends creating awareness about type and use of fertilizer, increasing income diversification to enable farmers to cover fertilizer cost, working perception of farmers regarding fertilizer use in the study area. Keywords: Fertilizer, Soil, Haramaya, OLS Regression DOI: 10.7176/DCS/13-6-02 Publication date: October 31 st 2023