The increasing gap between the demand and supply of wood products is linked to large-scale forest conversions to agricultural land and high population growth. Fast growing tree species like Eucalyptus have been popularised and planted by many farmers in different parts of Ethiopia to reduce the enormous supply gap. The objective of the study was to examine the value chain and identification of upgrading options for Eucalyptus poles and fuelwood in Sidama zone, Hawassa Zuria District, southern Ethiopia. The study applied value chain analysis, the theory of access, value chain governance and upgrading as well as gross margin to explores explicitly Eucalyptus products and their lines, chain actors, their function and interaction, estimate cost and value-added distribution, identify the role of Eucalyptus pole and fuelwood for actor’s livelihood strategy, mechanisms and structure of access to benefit and governance type, explore supporting and enabling environments along the value chain and finally to identify options for upgrading the value chain. For the collection of primary data key informant interviews, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, market assessment and direct observations were used and complemented by secondary data. A total of 49 actors along the chains including tree growers, middlemen, transporters, wholesalers and retailers of pole and fuelwood, workers, brokers, as well as the customers for instance constructors and carpenters, were interviewed. SPSS and excel solver was used to analyse the data and presented in graphs, tables, and descriptive texts. The results of the study revealed that tree growers, workers, middlemen, transporters, Tulla and Hawassa wholesalers and retailers of the pole, large fuelwood wholesalers and retailers, small fuelwood retailers and consumers are direct actors. Government, brokers and service providers were considered to be indirect actors in the value chain of Eucalyptus poles and fuelwood from Chefasine kebele. Among the different products produced in the kebele, Eucalyptus poles were the most traded (85%) products at Tulla and Hawassa towns followed by fuelwood (5%) traded mostly at Tulla town along the chain. The chain has two major lines for pole (line one: Chefasine to Tulla and Line two: Chefasine to Hawassa) and one major line for fuelwood. Very limited processing takes place at the tree growers’ level for both pole and fuelwood and the major proportion of value addition occurs at the middlemen level for line two of pole and fuelwood, and at Tulla pole wholesalers and retailers’ level for line one of Eucalyptus poles. Production, processing, marketing and consumption were the four main functional activities along the chain. The trade of Eucalyptus products was financially profitable for all actors in the chain. However, the benefit distribution was unequal and commercialization margin was increasingly distributed towards the downstream actors for poles while for fuelwood, middlemen grasped the higher benefit and commercialization margin. Eucalyptus was the second profitable livelihood option next to homestead agroforestry but was the first profitable as compared individually with khat, coffee, enset and other activities. Apart from income provision, Eucalyptus was used for conservation of degraded land, construction, firewood, shading, and a form of saving among other uses in the study area. The income from Eucalyptus was also among others used for education fees, house renting and purchase household consumption goods (food, cloth, equipment) and others. Supporting services were almost non-existent for Eucalyptus production and marketing. Access to finance, market information, relationships building, capital, labour opportunity, license and Eucalyptus products were the means of controlling and maintaining market dynamics. Market types of value chain governance with a low level of horizontal and vertical coordination as well as low level of explicit coordination was observed for the value chain of Eucalyptus poles and fuelwood. Disease, lack of market information, lack of support, lack of road access, lack of storage space and limited technologies as well as inadequate land were the major constraints identified from the focus group discussion and Participatory Innovative Platform (PIP). Organising tree growers for marketing and information sharing, organising traders for storage, provision of market infrastructures, easing credit access, training on silvicultural management, technologies adoption, implementing the existing policies and enforcing rules and regulations were some of the options identified for the upgrading of the product's chain.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:36521 |
| Date | 12 December 2019 |
| Creators | Asabeneh Alemayehu, Munuyee |
| Contributors | Auch, Eckhard, Bekele, Tsegaye, Technische Universität Dresden |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:masterThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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