ABSTRACT French bean is a major export vegetable crop in Kenya that is currently facing a steady decline in production. Two-spotted spider mite, (Tetranychus urticae Koch) is one of the major pests that has contributed to the fluctuations in French beans production. The conventional management of this pest using miticides has caused serious environmental and safety concerns particulary in the export market. Plant-based products provide safe alternatives that can be included in integrated pes...
ABSTRACT Kwale County has a vibrant agricultural land rental market due to its relative good climate and fertile soil. However, it is faced with several challenges including inefficiency use of resources such as land. There is evidence in Ethiopia and other parts of the world that participation in agricultural land rental markets can be a solution to solving food insecurity and land inequalities in Sub -Saharan Africa and the world at large. However, there are few studies which have been con...
ABSTRACT Horticultural sector is an important sector in production of food and generation of income. According to Kenya‘s vision 2030, crop cultivation is one of the main pillars of unlocking the potential of Kenya through increased productivity. The importance of snow peas is increasing greatly due to its high demand especially in Europe. In spite of the benefits associated with the production of snow peas, farmers in Nyandarua county have been withdrawing from its production probably due...
ABSTRACT Food insecurity remains a major challenge among the small-scale farmers in Kyuso SubCounty. Though the Ministry of Agriculture has been training small-scale farmers on various dryland farming technologies, Kyuso Sub-County has remained food insecure. This is evidenced by the fact that small-scale farmers in the Sub-County depend on food aid for their survival. The role played by the dryland farming technologies in ensuring household food security among the small-scale farmers has no...
ABSTRACT Kenyan dairy sub-sector has been undergoing many changes since the collapse of Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) in 1992. There have been developments in establishment of milk cooling plants which are thought to reduce milk losses and benefit the smallholder dairy farmers besides bulking milk at one point for the processing firms. However, there is evidence of underutilization of the cooling plants and the reasons that inform farmers’ decision to use the cooling plants as milk ma...
ABSTRACT Smallholder farmers produce the bulk of total milk marketed in the country. Despite this, they face high transaction costs in marketing their milk. Theory and empirical evidence indicate that cooperatives can minimize transaction costs. This study assessed how effective cooperatives were in increasing smallholder dairy farmers’ incomes through the minimization of transaction costs. The objectives of this study were to determine socioeconomic factors influencing smallholder farmers...
ABSTRACT Conventional Extension Approaches used over decades achieved minimal successes in creating impact in terms of agricultural production and improved livelihood of smallholder farmers in Kenya. The Participatory Extension Approaches, in particularly the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach have been tried widely and created positive impact in Asian countries. Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) introduced FFS approach in 2001 as an alternative to conventional approach to promote...
ABSTRACT Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is a contagious viral disease to which dairy cattle are highly susceptible. An outbreak of FMD in a dairy herd can cause drop in milk yield, increase mastitis infections, force culling, and impair fertility. These production losses can be substantial, but farmers undervalue the magnitude of the loss that they incur. To fill this knowledge gap, the study quantified the association of FMD outbreak with milk yield, mastitis incidences, culling rates and fer...
Abstract There are indications that the domestic demand for cassava particularly as staple food may in no time outweigh that of the industrial sector, except contract and non-contract farming entrepreneurs operate within the framework of sustainable agriculture. The study thus examines the effects of contract farming scheme on cassava production in Oyo State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used. Oyo and Ibadan/Ibarapa zones were randomly selected from the four Agricultura...
ABSTRACT Dairy commercialization is constrained by several factors including lack of funds. Access to financial services such as credit and savings were identified as important instruments to curb these financial challenges. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have been found to play a critical role amongst smallholder farmers in enhancing their access to finance. This study sought to investigate factors influencing credit access and the extent of credit access and how microfinance participatio...
ABSTRACT While number of studies focusing on the effect of technology adoption on alleviating rural poverty is increasing, much remains unclear about effects of shocks and Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Practices (SAIPs) on household vulnerability to poverty. Furthermore, most literature focuses on household food security without adequately capturing determinants of gender perceptions of food insecurity. Therefore, the study estimated the effects of shocks and SAIPs on household vu...
ABSTRACT Chicken production faces unsustainable supply of quality and affordable feeds. Prosopis pods could be used as an alternative livestock feed ingredient. A study was designed to evaluate the inclusion of prosopis pods in improved grower indigenous chickens diets in Kenya. The objectives were to determine effects of prosopis pods-based diets in indigenous chicken on performance and meat quality. In experiment 1, diets were formulated by substituting growers‟ rations with prosopis at ...
ABSTRACT Finger millet is one of the important traditional, nutritious and drought tolerant food crop grown by small scale farmers in most arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) of the world. In the ASALs of Kenya, finger millet is grown by small scale farmers who mainly grow low yielding unimproved varieties. Improved high yielding and recommended varieties are available but the farmers’ adoption is very low contributing to persistent food insecurity in these areas. The purpose of this study wa...
ABSTRACT There is potential in Kenya to utilize forage sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L) Lam) cultivars as livestock feed. There are many cultivars of forage sweet potato in Kenya whose feeding values have not been evaluated. The objectives of the current study were: 1) evaluate forage sweet potato cultivars for crude protein (CP) yield and digestibility at different harvesting ages, 2) evaluate their conservation potential as silage or hay and 3) determine sheep growth performance and goat ...
ABSTRACT Efforts to integrate rural people into biodiversity conservation through community-based conservation programs is an old tradition. These efforts were largely based on economic incentives, with little or no attention given to the role of culture and traditions in building support for conservation. Although these strategies are useful in promoting conservation and local empowerment, they are still fragile. Scholars suggest that incorporation of traditional values which reflect locall...