Credit markets and the uptake of improved dairy technologies in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia smallholder livestock producers have adopted components of improved dairy technologies but the intensity of adoption remains low. It is hypothesized that constraints on credit limit the abilityof many smallholder farmers to make the investments in crossbred cows and/or purchase complementary inputs associated with improved dairy technologies. This paper assesses how credit influences farmers' investment, production and marketing decisions. Farmers are classified as credit constrained or credit non-constrained. Results show that credit has indeed influenced farmers' investment and production decisions. However, credit has had little influence on variable input use or farmers' marketing decisions