Determinants of market outlet choice decision of tomato producers in Fogera woreda, South Gonder zone, Ethiopia

Vegetables are important for income generation to a large proportion of the rural households. Enhancing tomato farmers to reach markets and actively engage in the markets is a key challenge influencing tomato production in Ethiopia. The perishable nature of tomato necessitates effective marketing channels choice decisions. So, the main objective of this study was analyzing the determinants of market outlet choice decisions of tomato producers. The two-stage random sampling procedure was used to select the sampled kebeles and households, whereby 235 farm households were surveyed for the study. Both primary and secondary data were collected to address the objectives. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and an econometric model by using SPSS and STATA software. Multivariate probit Model results showed that the probability to choose wholesalers, collectors, retailers, and consumers market outlets were significantly affected by age of the household head, educational status of the household head, distance to the nearest market, access to credit, owning transport facility, land allocated to tomato and household size. Policy implications drawn from the study findings include that the government and concerned stakeholders should focus on strengthening rural-urban infrastructure, intensification of land for tomato, expanding the accessibility of credit and strengthening the existence of formal and informal education.