Determinants and economic impact of agricultural machinery custom hiring services on smallholder farm mechanization in Ethiopia

Determinants and economic impact of agricultural machinery custom hiring services on smallholder farm mechanization in Ethiopia | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Determinants and economic impact of agricultural machinery custom hiring services on smallholder farm mechanization in Ethiopia Siraj K. Busse, Abayneh A. Awulachew, Dejene G. Gadisa This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8999956/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The purpose of this study was to assess the factors that influence agricultural machinery custom-hiring services (CHS) in Dugda District, East Shoa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, as well as their operational performance and economic effects. Its main objectives were to determine the factors that affect adoption, evaluate the economic viability of mechanized versus traditional farming, and highlight potential policy measures to support smallholder mechanization. Using semi-structured interviews with 32 key informants from cooperatives, service centers, and local institutions, as well as structured questionnaires given to 363 farm households, a mixed-methods, cross-sectional approach was used. ANOVA and binary logistic regression were used to analyze the quantitative data, and thematic analysis was used to triangulate the results of the qualitative data. CHS utilization was found to be significantly impacted by factors such as educational status, farm size, crop type, topography, availability of machinery, hiring cost, distance to providers, and timeliness. When compared to traditional methods, mechanized CHS significantly decreased labor hours (for example, from 225 to 12 hours/ha for wheat) and increased net returns for maize (58,187.5 vs. 51,850 ETB/ha), teff (85,800 vs. 38,650 ETB/ha), and wheat (62,600 vs. 44,700 ETB/ha). Operational inefficiencies were observed, though, as only 84 of the 120 tractors that were registered were operational, and many more were in poor condition. CHS increases farm profitability and productivity, making it a successful strategy for encouraging smallholders to become mechanized. However, obstacles like a lack of spare parts, high hiring costs, a lack of machinery supply, and dispersed landholdings still prevent service expansion. The study suggests enhancing cooperative-based services, guaranteeing spare-part availability, offering operator training, providing credit and transportation support, encouraging land clustering for effective machinery use, and more in order to strengthen CHS sustainability. Farm mechanization services Tractor hiring operations Profitability analysis Operational efficiency Small-scale farming systems Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 06 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 05 May, 2026 Reviews received at journal 07 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 06 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 25 Mar, 2026 Editor invited by journal 14 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 12 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 12 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8999956","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":618913267,"identity":"c8055e0f-2720-45d1-b8ab-856d49061515","order_by":0,"name":"Siraj K. 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Its main objectives were to determine the factors that affect adoption, evaluate the economic viability of mechanized versus traditional farming, and highlight potential policy measures to support smallholder mechanization. Using semi-structured interviews with 32 key informants from cooperatives, service centers, and local institutions, as well as structured questionnaires given to 363 farm households, a mixed-methods, cross-sectional approach was used. ANOVA and binary logistic regression were used to analyze the quantitative data, and thematic analysis was used to triangulate the results of the qualitative data. CHS utilization was found to be significantly impacted by factors such as educational status, farm size, crop type, topography, availability of machinery, hiring cost, distance to providers, and timeliness. When compared to traditional methods, mechanized CHS significantly decreased labor hours (for example, from 225 to 12 hours/ha for wheat) and increased net returns for maize (58,187.5 vs. 51,850 ETB/ha), teff (85,800 vs. 38,650 ETB/ha), and wheat (62,600 vs. 44,700 ETB/ha). Operational inefficiencies were observed, though, as only 84 of the 120 tractors that were registered were operational, and many more were in poor condition. CHS increases farm profitability and productivity, making it a successful strategy for encouraging smallholders to become mechanized. However, obstacles like a lack of spare parts, high hiring costs, a lack of machinery supply, and dispersed landholdings still prevent service expansion. The study suggests enhancing cooperative-based services, guaranteeing spare-part availability, offering operator training, providing credit and transportation support, encouraging land clustering for effective machinery use, and more in order to strengthen CHS sustainability.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Determinants and economic impact of agricultural machinery custom hiring services on smallholder farm mechanization in Ethiopia","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-10 06:17:29","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8999956/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"138544639831019619126441928468618812769","date":"2026-05-06T12:26:47+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"308416722564638506986719058308644418036","date":"2026-05-05T13:57:56+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-04-07T11:47:00+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"300205376130140667988725901801456178294","date":"2026-04-06T05:10:35+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2026-04-06T04:15:22+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-03-25T06:32:18+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2026-03-14T11:18:17+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-03-12T11:37:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Discover Sustainability","date":"2026-03-12T05:55:30+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-sustainability","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"disu","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Sustainability](https://www.springer.com/43621)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Discover Sustainability","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"fef5035a-f5da-4c75-bb9e-1220700d3f18","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 10th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"138544639831019619126441928468618812769","date":"2026-05-06T12:26:47+00:00","index":72,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"308416722564638506986719058308644418036","date":"2026-05-05T13:57:56+00:00","index":61,"fulltext":""}],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-10T06:17:29+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-10 06:17:29","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8999956","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8999956","identity":"rs-8999956","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}