This study was conducted in Misrak Azernet Berebere district of Silte zone. The objectives of this study were to describe socioeconomic characteristics of the households using different wheat seed sources and identify factors governing the household choices of seed source. The farmer seed source options in the district were identified through desk level discussion made with district officials. Farmer to farmer, conventional seed system and direct seed marketing were the major seed source options for the smallholder farmers in the district. The study used cross sectional data collected from 120 wheat growers who had assessed seed from different sources during the production season. The target households were selected through proportional random sampling from the three peasant associations addressed by this study. The study used descriptive statistics to describe socioeconomic characteristics of the households by the seed sources they used and econometric model (Multinomial logit) was employed to identify factors governing the household choices of seed source. The result of the study reveals that those households who had accessed seed from direct seed marketing had used better seed quality, timely accessed, and had have shorter seed chain than conventional seed source. Moreover, the result of the study indicates that those households who had used seed from conventional source have larger land holding, higher tropical livestock unit, and used higher inputs than others. The result of multinomial logit model reveals that number of oxen own, timeliness, access to credit, and distance to the nearest market were found to influence the household decision to use farmer to farmer seed than conventional source. The result also shows that education, oxen, family size, credit access, distance to all weather roads, and distance to nearest market were factors that influences the household decision to use direct seed marketing source than conventional seed source. Hence, the study pointed out that resource endowment, institutional and infrastructural services were found to be factors determining wheat grower’s decision to choice seed source options. Therefore, government and others relevant stakeholders should work to improve the accessibility and availability of seed for smallholder farmers. It is also important to encourage and support public-private partnership in seed production and distribution.

Keywords: Seed, Choice, Multinomial Logit, Marginal Effect