Bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) are amongst the most important tropical fruit crops and are staple foods in most parts of the humid tropics and important sources of income to small scale holders in rural areas. In Kenya, banana is grown as an important food and cash crop. However, its cultivation has largely remained small scale. A common limiting factor to large scale production and expansion of existing plantations is the difficulty in obtaining high quality planting materials. Natural re...
Majority of the rural households in Kenya depend mainly on agriculture as a source of food and livelihoods. Agricultural productivity has been declining due to many factors including climate change. Declining agricultural productivity has in turn resulted in increased food insecurity in the country. Consequently, there is a renewed interest in promoting drought-tolerant crops such as sorghum, which are known to perform well in the arid and semi-arid lands of the developing world. Owing to its...
ABSTRACT Indigenous chickens (Gallus domesticus) are important source of livelihoods and food to majority of rural and urban households in Kenya. Consumers prefer indigenous chicken due to its nutritional and health benefits. Despite these benefits, productivity levels of Indigenous chicken are low resulting to shortages in supply. In the recent past, research has focused on increasing productivity levels of indigenous chicken resulting to improved indigenous chickens. However, acceptabilit...
ABSTRACT Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) agricultural commodity markets have been liberalised since the 1980s through Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). The aim was to foster market integration and efficiency. Liberalisation of markets allows free flow of goods and services from areas with excesses to those with a deficit. But most Sub-Saharan countries, Kenya included, has associated liberalisation with failure and unsustainable food markets though agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. P...
ABSTRACT Soybean has the potential of contributing significantly to Kenya’s national objective of enhancing food security. The demand of soybean has increased from roughly 150,000MT in 2008 to 220,000MT in 2011, while supply is roughly between 50,000MT to 120,000MT. Many efforts have been put in place by the government to increase on the production and productivity of soybean. However, soybean farmers are faced with the difficulty in accessing the market, while on the other hand traders are...
ABSTRACT The horticulture industry in Kenya has been very successful in the last one and a half decades. This subsector has grown to become a major employer and foreign exchange earner. In 2014, fruits contributed Kshs. 51.5 billions accounting for 22% of the domestic value of horticultural produce. The sweet yellow passion fruit variety is gaining adoption in Mbeere South Sub-county due to its apparent adaptation to the hot arid conditions and a ready market. Efforts had been made to promote...
ABSTRACT Maize is still largely a subsistence food crop under promotion as a food security crop and source of income for smallholders. In a bid to attain self-sufficiency, Rwanda made remarkable efforts to develop the subsector. These were mainly directed towards the expansion of the area under maize, organisation of farmers’ cooperatives and easy access to inputs. In improving maize productivity and marketing of maize several both public and private interventions were added in Musanze and...
Abstract In Kenya, there are more than 200,000 farmers who have been trained on organic farming technologies and systems. Currently certified land under organic management in Kenya stands at 104,211 ha while the organic sub sector employs 12,647 farmers who are directly involved in production of different organic products. Although there are many documented reasons that make farmers to adopt organic farming system, economic benefits present one of the major motivations. These benefits however...
ABSTRACT Low agriculture productivity and arable land distribution is a major challenge in Rwanda. The obvious consequences is that a substantial number of rural families who subsist on agriculture have less than 1ha, and where there is no use of fertilizers and most of that land is not arable which will cause land degradation, poverty and low household income. In the vision 2020, Rwanda intends to move from a low level income country to a middle level economy by 2020. The Girinka program is ...
ABSTRACT Agricultural markets offer opportunities for households to access incomes and food. Efficient food marketing systems assume a competitive structure thus enabling food distribution from surplus to deficit areas. Liberalization of agricultural markets in developing countries, Kenya included in the late 1980‟s and early 1990‟s aimed at achieving a market oriented economy. Earlier studies on agricultural market reforms have reported varied impacts on market efficiency, thus the need ...
Farm diversification is considered an optimal farm plan decision for mitigatingvarying degrees of risks and uncertainties which surround agricultural production, and also has a benefit of stabilizing or increasing income. Diversified agriculture is widely practicedin Konoin district but smallholder farmers earn low incomes asevidenced by poor living standards amongst the smallholders. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the role of on-farm diversification in poverty alleviation amon...
The study focused on the role of GlobalGAP standard on the income and technical efficiency of small-scale producers growing French beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) in Kirinyaga and Nyeri Counties in Kenya. The objectives were to determine the amount of income realized from production under a GlobalGAP farming system, establish the factors which predispose farmers into adopting GlobalGAP certification, compare the technical efficiency of production between certified and non-certified farming re...
Homa Bay County has great potential in terms of the existing arable land, availability of water, human resources base, technological options as well as market growth opportunities. A majority of household engage in fishing and agriculture as a source of livelihood with previous studies indicating that an estimate of 60% engage in sweet potato production. Kasipul, Kabondo Kasipul and Ndhiwa sub-counties have a high potential for sweet potato production. However the abundant production has...
ABSTRACT Land fragmentation is a major problem in most parts of the world as it restricts agricultural development, reduces productivity and opportunities for rural development. Kisii County shows a clear case of land fragmentation due to high population pressure and poverty. This study was conducted with the aim of examining the effect of land fragmentation on agricultural productivity by examining the technical efficiency of households in the area. The specific objectives were to determine ...
ABSTRACT Nyandarua County has enormous milk production potential and has a high amount of milk due to large population of dairy cows coupled with the huge milk market demand from within and without. Despite this potential, milk post-harvest losses have posed a major challenge to the dairy sector in the county. The objectives of the study were: to characterize the socio economic and milk handling attributes of milk producers, to estimate mean milk losses attributable to milk producers and tran...