No.27 Analysis of the Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion (“SHEP”) Intervention on Income and Food Security in Ethiopia

Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion (SHEP) aims to change small-scale horticultural farmers’ attitudes from “grow and sell” to “grow to sell” and improve horticultural incomes by enhancing farming and cultivation skills. This study indicates that SHEP improves the income and food security of small-scale horticultural farmers. In particular, it demonstrates that joint gender decision-making addressed through the SHEP approach positively impacts household food security. For the evaluation, GIS data are used to identify comparison and control areas based on six agricultural specificities essential for horticultural production and commercialization. In addition, propensity score matching is used to reduce bias due to covariates, allowing comparison with control farmers who are as close as possible to farmers in the project area. Using a quasi-experimental sampling of 610 farmers, this study in Oromia, Ethiopia, shows that SHEP instigates a transition from subsistence to commercial farming. First, the average horticultural income (29,889 ETB or 560.6 USD) and food security (64%) of the treatment group were statistically higher than the other groups after propensity score matching. This shows that the horticultural income average of the treatment group was USD 130.6 higher than the net farm income average of USD 430 in Jimma, the capital of the Oromia region where the project was conducted. Thus, the intervention group had a higher horticultural income average than the control and pure control groups, even in the context of not being able to actively grow horticultural crops under the national wheat flagship program. Further, the treated farmers were food secure, while a higher proportion of the farmers in the control and pure control groups faced severe food insecurity. The data also show that the project’s gender equality training has led to more joint couple decision-making among beneficiary households, thereby contributing to better food security. Finally, SHEP’s training curriculum advocates adapting agricultural risk adaptation strategies aligned with climate-smart agriculture (CSA) principles. Our findings indicate a notable correlation between adapting these CSA measures and households’ higher propensity towards food security. The study demonstrated that approaches such as SHEP are effective in improving smallholder farmers’ incomes and household-level food security in Ethiopia.

Keywords: Horticulture commercialization, Propensity score matching, SHEP, Spatial data field selection method