Abstract

Although Ethiopia is endowed with diverse agro-ecologies suitable for cereal production, the success of the production relies more on climate condition. Therefore, this study is initiated to analyze the trends of; cereal crops production area and productivity in Ethiopia. Data of meher season cereal crops productivity (qt/ha) and area of production (ha) were collected from Central statistical Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia. Trend test was carried out using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall’s trend test packaged in XLstat. The result of this study indicated that the area of cereal crops production for teff, wheat, maize, finger millet and rice showed significant increasing trend. But only sorghum production area indicated non-significant increasing trend. Moreover, Barley indicated non-significant decreasing trend. Moreover, the productivity of all cereal crops indicated significant increasing trend, except rice which decreased non-significantly. Productivity of Barley significantly increased despite non- significant decreasing production area. Similarly, productivity of Oat’s significantly increased despite significant decreasing production area; while the productivity of the rest crops (teff, wheat, maize, finger millet and rice) increased significantly with significant increasing trends of production area. However, differently from the others: Productivity of sorghum significantly increased despite non-significantly increasing area of sorghum production.

Key words: Cereal crops, trend Analysis, area of production and productivity.