Effect of malt barley cluster farming on food security in Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Cluster farming is the practice of merging neighbouring farms into a unified production unit to grow specific crops collaboratively. This is a promising method to enhance food security by improving agricultural productivity through coordinated resource use and enabling access to inputs, technologies, and markets. Despite this benefit, no empirical studies have examined how malt barley cluster farming affects smallholder farmers’ food security. This study adopts descriptive and econometric analysis, including the endogenous switching regression model (ESRM) and control function approach to account for selection bias and endogeneity in estimating the causal effect of malt barley cluster farming. Cross-sectional data were collected through a household survey of 502 smallholder producer households in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. The results indicate that participation in malt barley cluster farming significantly improves household food security by increasing income through higher yields and improved market access. This enables households to purchase a more diverse foods, leading to a 15.2% increase in HDDS and a 35.1% reduction in HFIAS. However, challenges such as limited machinery access, and potential risks related to monocropping could affect the long-term sustainability of malt barley cluster farming. Thus, it is essential to implement complementary factors to encourage participation decisions in malt barley cluster farming by improving institutional services such as machinery access, credit access, and extension services, facilitating community engagement programs, and promoting cluster farming for a more diverse range of commodities in the study area.