Value Chain Analysis of Hot Pepper in West Hararghe Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

This study focused on the analysis of hot pepper value chain in West Hararghe zone with specific objectives of identifying and mapping actors and their functions along hot pepper value chain, identifying the marketing channels of hot pepper in the area, estimate the distribution of benefits of actors along the hot pepper value chain, identifying the factors that affect the supply of hot pepper to the market in the study area. Primary data were collected from 172 farmers and 44 hot pepper traders using structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and Econometrics models were used to analyze the collected data. Descriptive statistics results showed that the main hot pepper value chain actors in the study area are input suppliers, farmers/producers, collectors, wholesalers, processors, retailers and consumers. The study result showed that the major production constraints of hot pepper were low quality of improved seed, weed, disease pest, drought/ shortage of rainfall, cold rooftop water, lack of chemicals and lack of access to extension services. On marketing side, low price of product, illegal traders, unfair weighing and lack of legal action on illegal traders were the major problems. About 61.05% of the quantity of hot pepper supplied to market goes outside of the zone. The highest gross marketing of producers was 96.13% (channel 2) which was followed by 90.48% (channel 5). The multiple linear regression model result indicated that age, sex and education were the significant variable that affected quantity of hot pepper supplied to market positively, whereas distance to market, disease and drought affected significantly and negatively. Therefore, policies aiming at increasing farmer’s awareness of producing value added hot pepper produce and increasing quantity supplied to market are recommended to strengthen chain development.