Socio-economic determinants of groundnut production in Ndhiwa Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract. Groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) is a major oilseed crop and has economic and nutritive benefits for rural farmers. Although the adoption of new technologies and increased contact with extension agents as one way of increasing production has improved production, productivity of groundnut remains low. This study used the ex-post facto research design with the aim of analyzing the socio-economic determinants of groundnut production in Kenya. Using purposive, multistage and simple random sampling techniques, data on farmer characteristics was obtained from 323 farmers involved in groundnut production during the 2014 main cropping season. Multiple regression analysis was used to study the behaviour and effects of independent variables on the dependent variable and test hypotheses. The results were that gender of household head, number of years a household head had been farming, household head’s previous income from groundnut and land size were significant factors in groundnut production. Based on the findings, the study recommends that interventions that target female headed households and improvement of farmers’ traditional knowledge on production should be put in place to improve production.