Abstract:
Haricot bean contributes to the national economy as a source of food, export commodity, source
of income and employment. However, despite its importance for cash generating, the white haricot
bean value chain inefficiency and production are influenced by low productivity, erratic rainfall,
post-harvest loss and price fluctuations. This study is therefore instigated to identify the main
actors and their role in value chains, analyze the market performance and identify determinants of
white haricot bean production in the study area. This study used both primary and secondary data
sources. The primary data were generated from 155 white haricot bean producers’ households, 4
wholesalers, 11 local assemblers and 3 exporters. Five market channels were identified for white
haricot beans. It was estimated that 217.4 quintals of white haricot beans were supplied to the
market by sampled farmers. Wholesalers and local assemblers were the main receivers of white
haricot beans with percentage shares of 68.4% and 30%, respectively. The highest and lowest total
gross marketing margin (TGMM) were 41.9% and 2.7% respectively. Out of 14 variables included
in the regressed production function, seven variables were found to significantly affect the
regressand. Accordingly, sex of household, land size allocated, off-farm income, and household
size were found to influence production positively while credit utilization, age household, and plot
distance had shown negative influence. The policy implications of this study findings are to have
increase and diversify off-farm activities, credit provision is not only enough in white haricot bean
production thus credit providers should followup the purposes loan used for so as to control loan
diversion to unproductive purposes, improving the capacity of available production labor and
gender consideration would have great contribution in increasing haricot bean production in the
study area.
