Value Chain Financing Instruments in Sidama Coffee Value Chain, Ethiopia

The study assessed the type of value chain financing instruments used and their respective characteristics in Sidama coffee value chain. The study uses data collected directly from Sidama coffee value chain actors through structured interview and questionnaire. Random and purposive   sampling methods were employed. The data was descriptively analyzed by using value chain analysis approach. Accordingly, there exists both direct and indirect value chain financing instruments in Sidama coffee value chain. A number of value chain financing instruments are employed in the chain, but the common instruments identified along the chain are categorized under product financing, receivables financing and financial enhancements. The instruments are characterized as informal and trusts-based and operate under mutual agreement between actors and are mostly the governance is conventional. Even though the conventional nature and poor infrastructure (both physical and financial) to reach each actor are challenges to the chain financing, the growing coffee market, existence of strong intervention, capitalization of cooperatives, the promising trend in the countries private owned financial institutions are found as the strongest side of the chain financing. Sidama coffee, value chain analysis, Value chain financing, Value chain financing instrument

Women’s participation in educational leadership in government and private secondary schools of Addis Ababa city administration

The purpose of the study was to investigate the attitudinal change of the stakeholders(teachers, principals, vice principals, sub-city educational bureau department heads) and the effectiveness of the gender policy towards women’s participation in principal ship in government and private secondary school of Addis Ababa city administration. The study sites were at Bole and Arada sub-city educational bureaus and secondary schools. The study population consists 8 educational bureau department heads, 20 government, 19 private secondary school principals, 38 private and 40 government vice principals, 68 government and 17 private secondary school female teachers, 246 government secondary school male teachers and 118 private male teachers and also 16 women’s affairs. Department heads were included in both sub-cities. From these 100% of female teachers and 70% of male teachers were included to fill the questionnaires which consists of 85 female teachers and 264 male teachers were selected using simple random sampling specifically lottery method. The data was collected using questionnaires, interview and focus group discussion as instrument. The study employed descriptive survey method because it was preferred as it enables to make investigations with prediction, narration of events, comparisons and drawing conclusions based on the information obtained from relatively large and representative sample of the target population. The findings of this study indicated that there is still low participation of women in secondary school principal ship and the attitude and challenges like misperception of stakeholders, women conflict of roll between their professional duty and family issues, women’s poor self image remain unchanged. It also revealed that there is a gap in creating awareness in implementation of policies, rules and regulations in people’s attitude towards women’s secondary school principal ship. Issues like competency of female principals is not included in this study and the researcher recommended other researchers investigate such issues. Recommendations such as women should be given opportunities of training and higher education’s were made on the basis of conclusions.Jimma Universit

Welcoming Work

In this article, I aim to provide an overview of the Welcoming Association, my ownexperiences and the causes of forced human displacement.I was born to a working-class family in 1960s Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. My fatherdied when I was nine years old and I was brought up by my courageous mother,supported by my uncles. Throughout my secondary school education, I wasbrainwashed by Marxism, Leninism and Maoism. I was taught about the evolution ofsystems from primitive communal society to 20th century communist systems in mymother tongue, Tigrinya

The Ahmed Glaucoma Valve in Refractory Glaucoma: Experiences in Southwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: The management of refractory glaucoma is a challenging task for any glaucoma surgeon. This study is aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Ahmed Glaucoma Valve implantation in refractory glaucomas in South-West Ethiopia.METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted on the charts of consecutive patients treated with Ahmed glaucoma valve implantation at Jimma University Specialized Hospital between August 2012 and August 2014. Success was defined as Intraocular Pressure (IOP) less than 22 mm Hg and greater than 5mm Hg at 6 months, with at least 30% reduction from baseline, without medical therapy (complete success) or either with or without medication (qualified successes)..RESULTS: A total of 12 eyes of 11 patients were included. The mean age of patients was 40.7 (SD= 19.0) years; 63.6% of them were males. The main types of glaucoma were pseudoexfoliative (3 eyes), uveitic (2 eyes), chronic angle closure (2 eyes) and Juvenile Open Angle (JOAG) (2 eyes). The mean IOP was reduced from preoperative level (32.75±7.14 mmHg) to (15.75 ±4.35 mmHg) at six postoperative months, (P<0.001); 66.7% eyes had complete successes while 83.3% had qualified success. Intra- operative complications were encountered in 2(16.7%) eyes, while 5/12 (41.7%) eyes had post-operative complications-hypotony (one with choroidal effusion) and progression of cataract in 2 eyes each. Hypertensive phase was diagnosed in 2(16.7%) eyes.CONCLUSION: The Ahmed glaucoma valve implant appears to be effective and relatively safe for treating complicated glaucomas with success rate comparable with those reported from other studies.KEYWORDS: Ahmed glaucoma valve, refractory glaucoma, complications, Ethiopi

Value Chain Analysis of Pineapple (Ananas Comosus) Production and Marketing from Traditional Agroforestry System, Southern Ethiopia

Southern Ethiopia is known with favorable environment for pineapple, coffee and many other horticultural crop Production. However, the practice has been facing a number of production and marketing constraints. The aim of the present study was therefore; identifying the value chain actors and their roles, mapping the value chain of pineapple production and marketing, and examining the determinants of market supply. Using purposive sampling technique, 105 households were selected from three representative peasant associations for in depth survey. Both primary and secondary data was collected using a combination of PRA tools. Descriptive statistics and econometric analysis using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) were used to analyze the collected data. The result revealed that both primary and secondary actors were involved in pineapple production and marketing. The percentage of market margin for producer, assembler, whole seller, retailer and processor actors were 9.41, 11.86, 18.33, 26.96 and 33.43%, respectively. Producer (34.20%), assembler (3.30%), whole seller (17.39%), retailer (26.78%) and processor (18.33%) were sharing percentage of profit margin in pineapple production. The result of the OLS regression analysis model indicated that market supply of pineapple was affected by wealthy status and duration of storage (p<0.05) and price (p<0.01), positively. Enhancing the local actors’ capacity through training, providing price and market information, credit and other processing facilities and institutional support could result in increasing production and steady supply of the pineapple products. Keywords: actors, pineapple producers, profit margin, value chain DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/84-0

Determinants of Coffee Growers’ Choice of Financing Options: The Case of Dale District, Sidama Zone, Ethiopia

The study assessed determinants of coffee farmers’ choices of financial options in Dale district. The study followed multistage simple random sampling method. Data collected from 162 coffee producing households in Dale district were used. Descriptive statistics for summarizing the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of coffee producing households and multinomial logit model to analyze the determinants of farmers’ financing source choices were used. According to descriptive statistics finding, education level of the household head, total livestock owned by the household, total land holding and land covered by coffee,  average annual coffee supply of household , households past loan experience, membership to SACCOs, holding saving account and local administrative role of the household head shows statistically significant difference among households choice of financing options. The multinomial logit analysis result shows that, compared to financial institution (base category), household‘s livestock holding and households’ proximity to financial institution positively affectsthe use of equity financing, whereas house heads’ sex, holding a saving account, affiliation to local administration and past loan history negatively affects the use of equity financing. While holding a saving account, house head‘s age and affiliation to local administration negatively affects the choices of value chain financing. Households’ total livestock holding found to positively affect choice of value chain financing and other informal sources of finance than financial institutions. Conversely, holding a saving account, total land holding of the household and affiliation to a local administration are found to negatively affect the choice of other informal sources of financing than financial institutions. The study suggests that mounting of financial institutions; overcoming the bureaucracy and transparency problems of government owned financial institutions; provision of financial information and awareness creation for chain actors will improve the farmers’ financial choice decision. Keywords: Sidama coffee, financing sources choice, value chain financing, MNL, Dale district

Above- and belowground carbon stocks in semi-arid land-use systems under integrated watershed management in Gergera watershed, Ethiopia

Enhanced carbon stocks help to improve the productivity and resilience of farming systems, especially in smallholder communities relying on subsistent agriculture. This study investigated the total terrestrial stock of organic carbon and its controlling factors in prevalent land-use systems in the Gergera watershed, northern Ethiopia, as part of the impact assessment of the integrated watershed management (IWM) program introduced in the region. Land-use and land-cover change (LULC) over 20 years (1994-2014) were analyzed using Landsat remote sensing imagery and a random forest algorithm. Above- and belowground biomass and soil were sampled from four major land-use systems, i.e. exclosures, croplands, rangelands and bare land. The soil samples collected at four slope positions, i.e. ridge, backslope, footslope and valley bottom and from four depth intervals (0-15, 15-30, 30-60 and 60-100 cm) were analyzed for organic carbon (SOC), bulk density, rock fragment, and other physical and chemical parameters. Soil cesium-137(137Cs) was analyzed to trace the pattern of SOC distribution in the watershed. The LULC change analysis indicates an improved vegetation cover since the adoption of IWM due to conversion from cropland to forest land and from bare land to rangeland on 3.3% and 6.3 % of the watershed area, respectively. Reduced vegetation cover is also observed due to changes of cropland to bare land and forest land to rangeland on 3.5% 5.7% of the area. The field survey revealed significantly higher aboveground carbon stock in the plant biomass of exclosures (9.08(±1.44) Mg C ha-1) followed by croplands and rangelands with 3.16(±0.24) Mg ha-1 and 1.49(±0.18) Mg ha-1, respectively. The belowground biomass carbon content is particularly low in the croplands (0.76(±0.09) Mg ha-1), exceeded by that in the exclosures and rangelands where values average 3.67(±0.06) Mg ha-1 and 3.16 (±0.39) Mg ha-1, respectively. The total terrestrial carbon stocks differ according to the land use systems in the ranked order of exclosures (55.6.11(±4.89) Mg ha-1) ≈ rangelands (53.77(±4.4) Mg ha-1) > croplands (31.69(±3.99) Mg ha-1) ≈ and bare land (35.52(±6.47) Mg ha-1). Besides the land use type, the SOC stock in the examined land-use systems is found negatively related to the content of coarse fragments and bulk density of the soil, which both measured the highest values in croplands and exclosures. Topsoils had greater SOC in all land use systems but the deeper soils (30-100cm) still contained 36 % of the SOC stock. The pattern of 137Cs distribution in the watershed generally indicates the presence of erosion, mostly on backslopes of exclosures and rangelands. However, the positive significant correlation between 137Cs and SOC distribution in exclosures points at a build-up of SOC. The overall results of the study highlight that more efforts in application of improved soil management practices are still required to enhance the current status of the SOC pool, particularly in the croplands, and thereby sustain the land productivity

Drivers and Implications of Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia: Evidence from Remote Sensing and Socio-demographic Data Integration

This study explores the major drivers of Land-use/Land-cover (LULC) dynamics and the observed   environmental degradation as a response to these changes in the Modjo watershed, central Ethiopia. Data for this study were generated through household survey and supplemented with remotely sensed image interpretation. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and remote sensing-based image  processing. The findings of the study revealed that LULC dynamics together with a range of ecological changes are serious environmental problems in the study site. LULC changes are driven by a combination of proximate and underlying drivers such as economic, demographic, biophysical and institutional factors. Bareland expansion, increased surface runoff production and soil erosion are major environmental damages partly attributed to LULC dynamics in the study site. These environmental degradation processes have adverse impacts on local agricultural productivity, water resource availability and food security of communities. Thus, policy responses are needed for integrated natural resource management and livelihood sustainability in the study area.Key words: Ethiopia, Land Use and Land Cover Change, Modjo Watershed, Remote Sensin

Rethinking Forestry and Natural Resources Higher Education in Ethiopia: An Education for Sustainable Development Perspective

This article reports on an action research project to reorient forestry and natural resources higher education in Ethiopia. The study used a combination of methods, including questionnaires and secondary information, to understand the existing higher-education system in Ethiopia. Based on the initial analysis, a workshop was held to deliberate the findings and to draw up guidelines for forestry and natural resources higher education that reflect education for sustainable development (ESD) approaches.The results of the study show that the state of higher education with regard to forestry and natural resources has, in about half a century of such education, been influenced by several internal and external factors. It progressively evolved from endeavours dependent on foreign aid to a self-sufficient Ethiopian system. During this time, the structural distribution of graduates moved in emphasis from an earlier emphasis on the diploma to a BSc-level emphasis. Little progress has been made with regard to female graduates, student enrolment is limited and the desirability of forestry education has declined. Despite this, most of the 31 public universities in the country offer natural resources education. Curricula were found to be inadequate for the challenges of the times, as was the national demand for expert professionals. Existing epistemological foundation adheres to forestry as a commodity rather than as a social-ecological system influencing conceptual definitions of forest, forestry and forester.Within an ESD perspective, forests are identified as social–ecological systems, forestry is seen as a sustainability science and a sustainable development sector, and the forester is viewed as a systems thinker and change agent. It is agreed that higher education relating to forestry and natural resources in Ethiopia requires guidelines that encompass a non-reductionist and comprehensive disciplinary base where synergy of multidisciplinary approaches is emphasised, as in ESD. The guidelines outlined indicate how to adapt higher education in respect of forestry and natural resources to changing societal needs in Ethiopia. The emerging guidelines also point to a reorientation of academic institutional foundations and leadership and to the need for a relevant epistemological framework to guide higher-education curricula on forestry and natural resources. The emerging guidelines further stress that higher education should engage more strongly with pertinent global and national issues

Why does accuracy assessment and validation of multi-resolution-based satellite image classification matter? A methodological discourse

This study presents a methodological discourse about how to validate the reliability of thematic maps derived from multi-resolution satellite-based image classification. Besides, the paper examines unbiased estimates of accuracy assessment using known sampling units. Landsat and spot images were used for lulc thematic layer extraction. These thematic layers together with reference data extracted from panchromatic aerial photo interpretation and ground survey were used as input datasets for accuracy assessment and validation analysis. For each lulc unit, a minimum of 50 reference samples were derived using a stratified random sampling scheme. Consequently, error matrices were generated to validate the quality of the 1973, 1995 and 2007 lulc maps. To improve sampling biases introduced due to the stratified random sampling reference data collection scheme, accuracy assessment indices including the producer’s, user’s and overall accuracy as well as Kappa coefficient of agreement were adjusted to the known areal proportion of map categories. The computed overall accuracy, corrected for bias using known marginal proportions of the 1973, 1995 and 2007 thematic layers were 88.12%, 89.95% and 92.27%, respectively. Also, 81.20%, 82.17% and 83.11% of Kappa coefficient of agreement were achieved from the 1972, 1995 and 2007 classifications, respectively. The findings show that high resolution aerial photos are good sources of  reference datasets in the absence of historical ground truth data for accuracy assessment analysis and the lulc classifications fulfilled the minimum of lulc classification standards of overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient of agreement. Consequently, all the lulc classifications could be used as an input for policy options for integrated land resource management practices in the watershed studied