Trends of Oat Production Area, Productivity and Utilization Status in Ethiopia

Abstract

Oat is an important multi-purpose cereal crop cultivated for grain, feed, straw used for human consumption and livestock feed. Oat is ranked as sixth in the world’s cereal production following wheat, maize, rice, barley and sorghum. Therefore, this study is initiated to analyze the trends of; oats production area, productivity and utilization status in Ethiopia. Data of meher season oats area of production (ha), productivity (qt/ha) and utilization (%) were collected from the Central Statistical Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia. Trend test was carried out using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall’s trend test packaged in XLstat. This study’s result indicated that oat production showed a non-significant increasing trend. Additionally oats yield qt/ha showed that significant increasing trend. Oat production area showed significant decreasing despite being used as Household Consumption and animal feed showed non-significant decreasing trends.