In the last few years, the international and domestic demand for haricot bean has increased. Despite the increase in volume of production in the country, farmers still experience marketing challenges resulting into low incomes. The main purpose of this paper was to examine market participation of smallholder haricot bean producers in Meskan district, Ethiopia based on the data from 133 smallholder farmers conducted in 2012. The results from the Heckman two stage model revealed that the value of haricot bean produced, access to market information, farm size, education level, access to credit, membership to grassroots organization and distance to the nearest market significantly affected market participation decision of haricot bean producers. Among the significant variables which affect market participation decision, membership to an organization & distance to market showed negative effect while all the rest showed a positive effect. The extent of market participation among haricot bean producers was significantly affected by farm size, value of haricot bean produced, access to input supply and access to credit.
Market participation decision, extent of participation, Haricot bean, Heckman two stages model, smallholder haricot bean farmers
