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Consensus is high in the development circle that improving agricultural markets in developing countries is vital to alleviate poverty since the poorest people in the world are farmers residing in developing countries, and predominantly rely on agriculture. This is especially important for Ethiopia where the vast majorities of people are poor and live in rural areas with high level of dependent on agriculture. However, agriculture is characterized by subsistence farming with low level of market participation. Despite a wealth of literature on grain marketing in Ethiopia, research on a commodity specific market channel choice employing transaction cost economics is scant. This book, therefore, attempts to apply a transaction cost analysis to explain the determinants of market channel choice decisions among smallholder maize farmers in one of the maize surplus areas of Southern Ethiopia. The book notes that farmer´s decision to choose a particular market channel is influenced by the different forms of transaction costs as well as household specific characteristics. The analysis would be much useful for policy makers, donors as well as researchers in agricultural marketing.

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Mamo Girma. MSc in Economics. Mr. Mamo is currently Lecturer of Economics at Adama University, Ethiopia. In addition to his long years of teaching, Mr. Mamo has been working as consultant in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Mr. Mamo has some publications on agricultural marketing in Ethiopia.

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