Analysis of the Rice Value Chain in North Western Ethiopia

Abstract: Rice was introduced to Ethiopia in the 1970s and became a livelihood source of food, income, and job opportunities for smallholder rice producers, processors, and traders. This research aims to identify the major rice value chain actors and their role, mapping the rice value chain and the benefit of each actor along the rice value chain. 180 rice producers were taken using systematic and random sampling methods. In addition to these 20 traders and 4 processors were taken to see the characteristics of the rice value chain in the study area. Smallholder rice producers were almost illustrated, infant on the experience of rice production, less than half of them accessed credit, cooperative membership, and got technical training. The major rice value chain actors are input suppliers, producers, assemblers, processors, traders, and consumers. Even though rice producers earned a higher profit share (56.40%), the processors benefited more from the rice value chain due to owning paddy rice milling service and participating in rice trading activities on aggregation. Smallholder rice producers can benefit more by accessing improved rice varieties, gaining technical training on rice production, and being members of cooperatives by owning milling machines through their cooperatives and participating in the milling paddy rice industries. Therefore, Governmental and non-governmental organizations should stand for smallholder rice producers by delivering timely inputs, and technical training and creating awareness to be members of cooperatives and to buy milling paddy rice machines in cooperatives to raise their rice products and earn more price premium per quintal. Keywords: Rice, Value Chain, Producer, Processor, Wholesaler, Retailer and Consumer. Title: Analysis of the Rice Value Chain in North Western Ethiopia Author: Welay Tesfay, Belete Woundefiraw, Lemma Zemedu International Journal of Novel Research in Marketing Management and Economics ISSN 2394-7322 Vol. 11, Issue 2, May 2024 - August 2024 Page No: 124-137 Novelty Journals Website: www.noveltyjournals.com Published Date: 12-August-2024 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13304157 Paper Download Link (Source) https://www.noveltyjournals.com/upload/paper/Analysis%20of%20the%20Rice%20Value%20Chain-12082024-3.pdf