Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Jimma, Oromia Regional State, P.O.Box 307, Ethiopia.

Department of Animal Science, Jimma University, Jimma, Oromia Regional State, P.O.Box 307, Ethiopia.
Agricultural commercialization ,Major coffee growing ,Rural poverty ,smallholder farmers ,

This study examines the role of smallholder agricultural commercialization on rural poverty in major coffee growing areas of South Western. Both primary and secondary data were used to generate the required information. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to generate primary data from 280 smallholder farmers. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Market Participation index, poverty index, and logit model. The finding showed that about 43 % of the small holder farmers were poor. The result from survey data showed that smallholder farmers’ agricultural commercialization has no significant effect on poverty reduction in the study areas. Logit model estimation result showed male headed household, age of household head, and education level of household head, family size in AE, farm income in ETB, access to credit services and distance from settlement center to nearest market place (km) were significantly affect rural poverty. The study suggests policies that will improve smallholder farmer access to education service, credits service, market information and road. This study also suggests that designing of poverty reduction in major coffee growing areas require the consideration of the above factors.

4 , 4 , 2014