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Assessment of Constraints and Opportunities of Tea Out-Growers in South West Ethiopia

Received: 26 June 2021    Accepted: 20 July 2021    Published: 27 July 2021
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Abstract

Tea, in Ethiopia, is grown in south west parts of the country. It is produced by estates namely Ethio Agri Ceft, East Africa PLC and other newly established tea plantations. They tried to cover the capacity of their processing factory by out growers surrounding tea plantations. Problems the out growers faced and opportunities they have not yet studied in detail. Therefore, this research attempted to generate useful information on tea out growers’ constraints and opportunities in tea production and marketing, which helps governmental institutions to assess their activities and redesign their operations. The research was done by interviewing tea out growers surrounding the two major tea plantations namely WushWush and Gumero in south west Ethiopia. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and constraints were analyzed using Relative Severity Index techniques. The data was collected from 120 randomly selected households surrounding the two major tea plantations. The result showed that out growers on average has experience of five years and allocated 1.37 ha of land to produce tea. Tea is among the most fertilizer and labor intensive crop of all the plantation crops. They plucked on average 295 kg/ha export standard or 731 kg/ha lowquality standard green tea leaves in one harvest in the main season. Relative Severity index analysis revealed that out growers’ major constraints of tea production were high price and not timely availability of inputs, shortage of inputs, high cost of production, need intensive plot management, lack of capital, no government extension service and lack of training. However, they have good opportunities in obtaining frequent income almost throughout the year, high cash income, low risk of animal damage and theft. This study concluded that out growers allocated 33% of total land owned to grow tea. Plucking was the main cost in tea production which took 30% of income from green tea leaves. On average, out growers obtained 2600 kg/ha/year green leaves which was much below the two tea plantations 3500 kg/ha/year. One of the main constraints of tea growing was high cost of production. However, they were benefited more from getting year round cash income, low risk of theft and animal damage.

Published in International Journal of Agricultural Economics (Volume 6, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijae.20210604.12
Page(s) 151-161
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Tea out Growers, Gumero, WushWush, Relative Severity Index, Constraints

References
[1] CSA, 2015. Agricultural Sample Survey. Report on Area and Production of Major Crops for Private Peasant Holdings, Meher Season. Addis Ababa.
[2] MoFED, 2010. Growth and Transformation Plan I. Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
[3] Sharma, V. K., A. Bhattacharya, A. Kumar and H. K. Sharma, 2007. Health benefits of tea consumption. Trop. J. Pharm. Res., 6: 785-792.
[4] EIAR 2017, National Tea commodity research strategy (2016-2030), January 2017, Addis Ababa.
[5] Yamane, Taro, 1967. Statistics, An Introductory analysis, 2nd Ed., New York: Harper and Row.
[6] Chandima W., Emmanuel F., Anoma J. M., Sanath J. K., 2017. Prospects and issues related to tea cultivation in mid country homegarden based tea smallholdings in a selected village in Sri Lanka. Tropical Agricultural Research · December 2017 DOI: 10.4038/tar.v28i4.8250.
[7] SuranjanPriyanath, HumuwalaMalawarage and Premaratne, S. P. and Yoosuf, Amina and Maurice D. 2018. Technical efficiency for Tea smallholder farmers under UTZ certification system in Sri Lanka: A stochanistic frontier approach. Munich personal RePEC archive (MPRA). SEISENSE.
[8] Abhijit DAs and R. R. Mishara, 2019. Value chain analysis of Tea and constraints faced by the small tea growers in India with special reference to state Assam. International Journal of current Microbiology and applied sciences. ISSN. 2319-7706 volume 8 No. 12.
[9] ReterPotem and GibijiNimasow, 2016. Status and constraints of tea cultivation in Lohit District of Arunachal Pradesh, India. International Journal of CURRSCI 2016, 19 (1): E 146-155.
[10] Martin PROWSE, 2012. Contract Farming in Developing Countries - A review. A SAVOIR. Institute of Development policy and management, University of Antwerp.
[11] Elias K., Sarah W. and Kagwathi S., 2012. Sustainable method of addressing challenges facing smallholder tea sector in Kenya. A supply chain management approach.
[12] Issac Cowan-Gore and ThamThamSein, 2020. MyanmarTea cultivation and processing guide. STRENGTHEN Publication series.
[13] Nyaga Susan Wambeti, 2017. Challenges facing small scale Tea farmers in Kenya.
[14] Onduru D. D. Dejager A., Hiller S. and Vanden, Bosch R., 2012. Sustainability of smallholder Tea production in developing countries: Learning experiences from farmers field school in Kenya. International journal of development and sustainability, Vol 1 No. 3, pp 714-742.
[15] Lighten Dube and EmmanuelGuveya, 2014. Productivity analysis of smallholder out grower Tea (Camellia Sinensis) farming in Chipinge District of Zembabwe.
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  • APA Style

    Beza Erko Erge, Melaku Addisu Bifa, Megdelawit Temesgen, Efrem Asfaw, Rehima Musema. (2021). Assessment of Constraints and Opportunities of Tea Out-Growers in South West Ethiopia. International Journal of Agricultural Economics, 6(4), 151-161. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20210604.12

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    ACS Style

    Beza Erko Erge; Melaku Addisu Bifa; Megdelawit Temesgen; Efrem Asfaw; Rehima Musema. Assessment of Constraints and Opportunities of Tea Out-Growers in South West Ethiopia. Int. J. Agric. Econ. 2021, 6(4), 151-161. doi: 10.11648/j.ijae.20210604.12

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    AMA Style

    Beza Erko Erge, Melaku Addisu Bifa, Megdelawit Temesgen, Efrem Asfaw, Rehima Musema. Assessment of Constraints and Opportunities of Tea Out-Growers in South West Ethiopia. Int J Agric Econ. 2021;6(4):151-161. doi: 10.11648/j.ijae.20210604.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijae.20210604.12,
      author = {Beza Erko Erge and Melaku Addisu Bifa and Megdelawit Temesgen and Efrem Asfaw and Rehima Musema},
      title = {Assessment of Constraints and Opportunities of Tea Out-Growers in South West Ethiopia},
      journal = {International Journal of Agricultural Economics},
      volume = {6},
      number = {4},
      pages = {151-161},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijae.20210604.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20210604.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijae.20210604.12},
      abstract = {Tea, in Ethiopia, is grown in south west parts of the country. It is produced by estates namely Ethio Agri Ceft, East Africa PLC and other newly established tea plantations. They tried to cover the capacity of their processing factory by out growers surrounding tea plantations. Problems the out growers faced and opportunities they have not yet studied in detail. Therefore, this research attempted to generate useful information on tea out growers’ constraints and opportunities in tea production and marketing, which helps governmental institutions to assess their activities and redesign their operations. The research was done by interviewing tea out growers surrounding the two major tea plantations namely WushWush and Gumero in south west Ethiopia. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and constraints were analyzed using Relative Severity Index techniques. The data was collected from 120 randomly selected households surrounding the two major tea plantations. The result showed that out growers on average has experience of five years and allocated 1.37 ha of land to produce tea. Tea is among the most fertilizer and labor intensive crop of all the plantation crops. They plucked on average 295 kg/ha export standard or 731 kg/ha lowquality standard green tea leaves in one harvest in the main season. Relative Severity index analysis revealed that out growers’ major constraints of tea production were high price and not timely availability of inputs, shortage of inputs, high cost of production, need intensive plot management, lack of capital, no government extension service and lack of training. However, they have good opportunities in obtaining frequent income almost throughout the year, high cash income, low risk of animal damage and theft. This study concluded that out growers allocated 33% of total land owned to grow tea. Plucking was the main cost in tea production which took 30% of income from green tea leaves. On average, out growers obtained 2600 kg/ha/year green leaves which was much below the two tea plantations 3500 kg/ha/year. One of the main constraints of tea growing was high cost of production. However, they were benefited more from getting year round cash income, low risk of theft and animal damage.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Assessment of Constraints and Opportunities of Tea Out-Growers in South West Ethiopia
    AU  - Beza Erko Erge
    AU  - Melaku Addisu Bifa
    AU  - Megdelawit Temesgen
    AU  - Efrem Asfaw
    AU  - Rehima Musema
    Y1  - 2021/07/27
    PY  - 2021
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20210604.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijae.20210604.12
    T2  - International Journal of Agricultural Economics
    JF  - International Journal of Agricultural Economics
    JO  - International Journal of Agricultural Economics
    SP  - 151
    EP  - 161
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2575-3843
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20210604.12
    AB  - Tea, in Ethiopia, is grown in south west parts of the country. It is produced by estates namely Ethio Agri Ceft, East Africa PLC and other newly established tea plantations. They tried to cover the capacity of their processing factory by out growers surrounding tea plantations. Problems the out growers faced and opportunities they have not yet studied in detail. Therefore, this research attempted to generate useful information on tea out growers’ constraints and opportunities in tea production and marketing, which helps governmental institutions to assess their activities and redesign their operations. The research was done by interviewing tea out growers surrounding the two major tea plantations namely WushWush and Gumero in south west Ethiopia. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and constraints were analyzed using Relative Severity Index techniques. The data was collected from 120 randomly selected households surrounding the two major tea plantations. The result showed that out growers on average has experience of five years and allocated 1.37 ha of land to produce tea. Tea is among the most fertilizer and labor intensive crop of all the plantation crops. They plucked on average 295 kg/ha export standard or 731 kg/ha lowquality standard green tea leaves in one harvest in the main season. Relative Severity index analysis revealed that out growers’ major constraints of tea production were high price and not timely availability of inputs, shortage of inputs, high cost of production, need intensive plot management, lack of capital, no government extension service and lack of training. However, they have good opportunities in obtaining frequent income almost throughout the year, high cash income, low risk of animal damage and theft. This study concluded that out growers allocated 33% of total land owned to grow tea. Plucking was the main cost in tea production which took 30% of income from green tea leaves. On average, out growers obtained 2600 kg/ha/year green leaves which was much below the two tea plantations 3500 kg/ha/year. One of the main constraints of tea growing was high cost of production. However, they were benefited more from getting year round cash income, low risk of theft and animal damage.
    VL  - 6
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Jimma Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Jimma, Ethiopia

  • Jimma Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Jimma, Ethiopia

  • Jimma Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Jimma, Ethiopia

  • Jimma Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Jimma, Ethiopia

  • Agricultural Economics Research Directorate, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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