Economic Benefit Farmers Gained from Tef Demonstration Trials

Abstract

Sixty-eight lead farmers were randomly selected from a shortlist of 120 lead farmers, and they were provided with quality seed of tef varieties released recently to plant on one-fourth of a hectare on the same farmers’ fields, The grain yield means from the two tef varieties were comparable amounting to 2.54 and 2.48 t ha-1 for Dagim and Bora, respectively. Given the input and output prices that prevailed in the selected districts, the mean production costs (variable and fixed) and the gross income were estimated at 35,504.30 and 83,445.62 Birr ha-1, respectively. The study also revealed that labor accounted for about 53% of the total costs. It is, therefore, recommended to introduce seed-oriented demonstration trials accounting the costs and revenue to determine the economic benefit farmers gained from seed sales to fellow-farmers.