Abstract:
This study was aimed at assessing the determinants of market outlet choice and livelihood
outcomes of coffee producing farmers in Lalo Assabi woreda of Oromiya region with specific
objectives of identifying key roles of coffee marketing on the livelihood; identifying major
factors affecting market outlet choice, and identifying determinants of livelihood outcomes as
measured by housing condition, schooling of children and annual total income of coffee
farmers. Random sample of 141 coffee producers were selected for interview and both
descriptive and inferential statistical methods were employed for data analysis. For the
marketing of coffee, 11.3%, 51.8% and 36.9% of the respondents mainly choose end
consumer, private trader and cooperative outlets, respectively. The result of multinomial
logistic model shows that the choice of end consumer outlet is positively and significantly
affected by access to transportation facility, access to price information and access to credit
compared to private trader outlet whereas quantity of coffee sold and access to extension
service negatively affected the main choice of end consumer outlet. Similarly, the choice of
cooperative outlet is positively and significantly affected by distance to the market, access to
transportation facility, access to price information and access to training compared to private
trader outlet. The result of binary logistic regression shows that the probability of having
corrugated iron sheet roofed house increases with the increase in square root of total annual
income. Multiple linear regressions results show that schooling of children is positively and
significantly influenced by age of household head, year of education of household head, and
square root of total annual income. Similarly, log of total annual income is positively and
significantly affected by age of household head, TLU, access to credit, and total land owned.
Therefore, policies aiming at increasing farmer’s access to modern farming system,
developing infrastructure and improving extension system are recommended to improve coffee
productivity and livelihoods of coffee farmers
