Journal of Resources Development and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8397 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.40, 2018 14 Economics of Enset (Ensete ventricosum) Cultivation and Constraints Faced by Cultivators in Doyogena District, SNNPR, Ethiopia Tessema Erchafo Department of Socioeconomic Research, Areka Agricultural Research Center, Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia Abstract Enset is a traditional staple food crop in many parts of the densely populated south and south-western highlands of Ethiopia. Doyogena district is one of the major producers of enset in southern Ethiopia. Enset (Ensete Ventricosum) cultivation provides supplementary income for growers in the study area. The purpose of this paper was to study cost and return associated with enset cultivation and identify major constraints faced by enset growers. A total of 154 farm households were selected randomly for the survey. Data were obtained through face to face interview and focus group discussion by using pre-tested questionnaire and checklist respectively. The cost of human labor was the most important cost item within the total cost of enset cultivation (33.64%) followed by cost of planting material which accounted 14.41% in the total cost of enset cultivation. The cost and return analysis shows that enset cultivation is profitable. Land shortage, lack of processing technology, absence of cooperatives, disease and limited government attention are the major constraint faced by farmers in enset production and its products marketing in the study area. Therefore, the government should take initiation for improving the infrastructural facilities, which is a must for improving the production and marketing of enset products. Keywords: Constraints, Doyogena, Economics, enset, Southern Ethiopia 1. INTRODUCTION Enset (Ensete ventricosum), a plant which looks like banana, is a multi-use crop domesticated and grown as food crop only in Ethiopia. It is one of the most important perennial food security crop of southern nations nationalities and peoples regional state of Ethiopia. Due to its multi-use and high economic returns it is referred to as a plant for everything (Valentina, 2015). Enset can be grown regardless of the size of land holding in areas where it is cultivated. Even a families with no land for crop cultivation have enset around their residence (Birmeta et al., 2004). Enset cultivation system widely differ from other perennial crops cultivation system due to the complexities such as growth period, age structure, repeated transplanting of a single plant, processing and storage etc. For instance, bulk storage of kocho and/or bulla for long duration is mostly possible at producer level because these products are stored traditionally in the pit lined with enset leaves. These products are also packed traditionally by the plant's dried pseudo-stem and leaves. In recent years, there has been a rise in demand for enset food in hotels and restaurants. To capture the increased demand, enset growers are processing enset for its food and non-food products. Processing of enset into its main products (kocho and bulla) is expected to utilize a much more diverse set of resources. Management of resources for maximizing the returns and minimizing costs as well as improving the overall efficiency of farmers is the major concern of all the institutions involved in uplifting agricultural livelihood. That is, allocation of farm resources among alternatives is based on relative profitability of the farm which is determined by the value of output and the cost of cultivation (George, 1988). Therefore, studying economics of crop cultivation provide an essential information for formulation and evaluation of economic policies both at micro and macro levels. However, in depth investigation of cost of cultivation for perennials is very costly and cannot be conducted as an annuals. Keeping in view these aspects, this study attempts to compute cost of enset cultivation and analyze its relative profitability of in Doyogena district of southern Ethiopia. 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1. Description of Study Location This study was conducted in Doyogena district which is one of the seven districts in Kembata Tembaro zone, Southern Ethiopia. The administrative center of Doyogena district is Doyogena town which is located at a distance of 258 km away from Addis Ababa in South-west direction. The total area coverage of the district is about 17263.89 hectare. The district is bordered on the south by Kacha Bira, on the west and north by Hadiya Zone and on the east by Angecha district. The total population of the district is about 101, 618 of which 49,889 (49.09%) are male and 51,729 (50.91%) are female (DFEDO, 2016). The district is approximately 2585 meter above sea level and its altitude ranges from 1900 to 2748 meter. The district has two major agro-ecologies, Dega (70%) and Woyina dega (30%). The average temperature of the district is 22°C, and receives average annual rainfall of 1400 mm. Regarding land use of the district, about 86 percent of brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by International Institute for Science, Technology and Education (IISTE): E-Journals