A meta analysis on the effect of agricultural extension on farmers' market participation in Ethiopia

Agriculture is the backbone of Ethiopian economy. Majority of the farmers produce agricultural product for their own home consumption and the production system is not market oriented. The low status of market oriented agriculture is the result of weak institutional performance such as agricultural extension. Different results on the effect of agricultural extension on market participation of farmers depicted contradictory results (positive, negative and no effect). In this study to assess the direction of effect, a Meta Analysis is performed using 16 studies which were selected based on PRISMA criteria. Based on the random effect model, the result depicted that agricultural extension service have positive effect, even if the effect is not strong enough, on the market participation decision of agricultural producers. Moreover, the subgroup analysis showed different effect of agricultural extension service for different producers. The effect for pulse crops, cereal crops and horticultural crops is strong whereas, for vegetables and livestock it is very poor. Therefore, market oriented extension service should be provided for all producers, particularly for vegetables and livestock producers, to improve the welfare and the food security status of the farmers.