Abstract

The agricultural sector is the most important sector in the Ethiopian economy. Rice belongs to the family “Gramineae” and the genus “Oryza”. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the main staple foods for 70% of the population of the world. Africa produces an average of 14.6 million tons of rough rice in the years 1989 to 1996 on 7.3 million hectare of land equivalent to 2.6% and 4.6% of the world total production and rice area respectively. Rice is a recently introduced crop that contributes to food security and farm income in Ethiopia. Despite the contribution, there is considerable loss in rice production at the farm level due to improper post-harvest handling. Therefore, reducing rice loss at the farm level are important storage technology and policy objectives to optimally design interventions targeted at reducing losses. The objective of this review is farmers’ Willingness to Pay (WTP) for rice post-harvest handling technology in Ethiopia. Specifically, review factors affecting storage materials of rice and determinants of household WTP. Among the different literatures the result from Tobit model revealed that post-harvest loss was significantly influenced by variables such as family labour, education level, land allocated for rice, access to milling machine, frequency of extension contact, storage facility, and volume of rice production. In addition to this by reviewing different literatures income of the household, education level of the respondent, media exposure, respondent perception about quality of seed, household family size, farm size, livestock holding and age of the respondent are significant variables that explain WTP of rice.

Keywords: Rice post-harvest technology; Rice post-harvest loss; WTP; Production