Constraints and Opportunities in Cluster-Based Farming in Ethiopia

Background In many developing nations, smallholders play a pivotal role in the agricultural sector, holding significant potential for sustained expansion. Agriculture, contributing 37.57% to Ethiopia's GDP, is vital for livelihoods. However, recent agricultural growth could not address efficiently and effectively food security, nutrition security, and poverty challenges of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. To enhance productivity agricultural transformation agency of Ethiopia started to mobilize the agriculture sector through a cluster-based farming approach is getting priority as an effort to change smallholder subsistence farming productivity to market-oriented farming. However, the expansion and adoption of cluster farming in Ethiopia are not widespread due to different constraints. The aim of this paper is to critically review research conducted on constraints and opportunities in cluster-based farming in Ethiopia from a range of perspectives, including social, economic, ecological/environmental, institutional, and political. Methods A systematic literature review methodology was, where searched for relevant papers were through digital libraries, web sources, Ethiopian public university repositories, Sci-Hub, and ATA government website. The study performed a keyword-based search to identify relevant works mostly from 2015-2023; 14 studies were selected that were relevant to the objective of the review. Results The review result shows that the availability of highly social interaction, highly economic of scale, conductive/suitable agro ecology, strong institutions that have partnerships and networking with other institutions, and a stable political system, respectively were the main opportunities, whereas farmer’s resistance for accepting the idea, lack of economies of scale of smallholder farmers, unfavorable agro-ecological conditions, poor institutional coordination, and political instability respectively, were the main constraints of cluster-based farming in Ethiopia from social, economic, ecological, institutional, and political perspectives. Conclusions Ethiopia faces a poverty cycle despite progress in agriculture. The Agricultural Transformation Agency's focus on cluster-based farming aims to shift smallholder practices toward market-oriented models, offering benefits like cost reduction and innovation Recommendation Prioritize infrastructure to connect cluster farms, expand research, provide farmer training, secure funding for cooperatives, and promote pro-poor agriculture. Extend extension offices for better outreach, and conduct ongoing government monitoring and evaluation for sustained success.