Wheat commercialization level and its association with rural households’ dietary diversity in Northwestern Ethiopia

Wheat commercialization level (WCI) in Ethiopia as a strategic food security crops & as government initiatives, is still relatively low, despite its considerable potential for food security, income generation and job creation. Hence, this study was initiated to analysis the level of household WCI; to pinpoint the major derivers of WCIs & to examine the association of WCI on rural households’ dietary diversity. A cross-sectional primary data from 395 wheat-growing households using a multi-stage sampling techniques were collected. The WCI was evaluating the degree of WCI, and a fractional logit model were used to investigate the influencing factors of WCI and the effect of it on dietary diversity estimated using Poisson regression model. The average result of WCI of 51.1%, shows that wheat production & marketing in the study areas has progressed from purely subsistence farming to a moderate level of commercialization. Moreover, cluster farming, access to irrigation, educational level, ownership of livestock, landholding size, fertilizer use, off-farm income, and all roads access were statistically positive association while access to credit, household size & exposure to shock were significant negative association. As a result, study discovered that increased WCI improves household dietary diversity, demonstrating a favorable relationship between market participation, food & nutrition security. Therefore, study strongly recommended for efficient production and thereby increases wheat commercialization level, implementing practically at grass root level of cluster-farming, strong and well-coordinated farmer cooperatives via encouraging climate-resilient wheat varieties to farmers are very critical to transform from wheat food self-sufficiency to net export paradigm.