Articles: Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension

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Exploring Socio-Economic Characteristics on Adoption Intensity of Biochar Among Farming Households In Sub-Humid Regions of Western Kenya
(University of Embu, 2025-02-13) Kyalo, Annastacia Maitha; Mogaka, Hezron; Kirimi, Florence Kaumi; Kizito, Kwena; Ndirangu, Samuel Njiri; Onyari, Charles Nyambane; Muriithi, Lydia; Elvin, Otara Nyaboe; Mutungi, Scholastica Katava; Kiprotich, Shadrack; Njiru, Moses Muchangi; Kamau, Ezekiel Areri
Agriculture is a cornerstone of Kenya's economy, yet declining soil fertility and low adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies, such as biochar, have hindered productivity among smallholder farmers. Biochar is perceived to be a cost- effective technology especially among resource constraint farming households. Despite many smallholder farmers acknowledging the importance of biochar as a soil amendment, most farmers face socio-economic barriers that hinder its adoption at scale. This study focused on how socio-economic factors influence adoption intensity of biochar, with a focus on the farming households in the sub-humid regions of Western Kenya. Employing a multistage stratified sampling procedure and Heckman selection model, the study reveals that awareness of biochar, access to credits, total land used in farming and education level positively and significantly influences adoption of biochar while total land owned in acres negatively and significantly influences adoption of biochar. Similarly, awareness of biochar, access to credits, and education level positively and significantly influences adoption intensity of biochar while terms of land ownership negatively and significantly influence adoption intensity of biochar. The study identifies awareness of biochar, education, credit access, and land ownership as key factors influencing its adoption by smallholder farmers. Promoting biochar as a soil amendment and carbon sequestration technique for farmers should be the main goal of the government, non-governmental organizations, and development organizations. Promoting the advantages of biochar for crop yields and soil fertility should be spearheaded by the Ministry of Agriculture's Extension Department. While development organizations offer financial assistance and training to promote adoption, policymakers should push farmer cooperatives to reduce the cost of biochar production and implementation
Factors Influencing Youth Farmers' Use of Soil and Water Conservation Technologies In Drylands of Machakos County,Kenya
(UoEm, 2025-04-02) Mutungi, Scholastica Kavata; Mogaka, Hezron Rasugu; Kirimi, Florence Kaumi; Onyari, Charles Nyambane; Muriithi, Lydia; Otara, Elvin Nyaboe; Kiprotich, Shadrack; Njiru, Moses Muchangi; Kyalo, Annastacia Maitha; Kamau, Ezekiel Areri;
Land degradation presents a serious threat to sustainable soil and water resources, primarily through erosion, declining soil fertility, and extreme weather events. Addressing these challenges involves selecting appropriate Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) technologies to mitigate soil quality decline and enhance agricultural productivity. Soil and water conservation technologies have been promoted across various regions, especially in dryland areas for several decades with mixed outcomes. Despite their positive impacts, the utilization intensity of these technologies at farm level remains low. Furthermore, there is limited information on use and use intensity of the technologies among youth farmers, who are key to driving agricultural transformation. This study investigates the socio-economic factors influencing the use and use intensity of SWC technologies among youth farmers. A cross-sectional survey was employed to gather data from 396 youth farmers selected through a multistage sampling procedure. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Cragg's Double Hurdle (DH) model. The findings revealed that among 12 independent variables included in regression analysis education level, farm income, and farming experience significantly determined the choice of using SWC technologies. Additionally, access to credit, marital status, education level, farming experience, land size, technical knowledge, training participation, farm income, and land ownership had significant effects on the intensity of use. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions, such as strengthening credit access, enhancing technical training, and expanding educational opportunities to promote broader adoption and effective utilization of SWC technologies. Integrating these factors into policy and planning is essential to enhancing agricultural productivity, resilience and sustainability among youth farmers in dryland regions.
Decomposition of the Coffee Value Chain Among Smallholder Farmers in Embu and Kirinyaga Counties in Central Kenya
(UoEm, 2024-10-24) Musau Wambua, Daniel; Ndirangu, Samuel N.; Mogaka, Hezron; Gichimu, Bernard M.
The coffee value chain is lengthy and complex with numerous actors and this exposes the farmers to inherent financial risks. This study sought to decompose the coffee value chain and its dynamics. The study was undertaken in Embu and Kirinyaga counties in Central Kenya and the target population was smallholder coffee farmers. The study used multistage stratified sampling techniques to draw a sample of 385 respondents. Majority (97%) of the sampled farmers were processing and marketing their coffee through cooperative societies. Socioeconomic analysis of these farmers showed that majority were middle-aged, fairly educated and with adequate coffee farming experience but their cherry production was very low averaging 2.3 kgs per tree for 2022/2023 crop year. The cooperative societies were playing key roles in the coffee value chain including farmers’ training, input and credit provision, coffee processing and marketing. There were numerous coffee marketing challenges, including high middlemen involvement, which lowered the coffee prices and reduced the trade volumes. Value adding activities such as roasting, grinding, and packaging were rare and farmers’ involvement in the upstream value chain was minimal. The local demand for the produced coffee was very low with domestic consumption taking only 2% of the output. The multilevel mixed effect model results revealed that value adding and farmer involvement were found to have a significant positive influence on the traded volumes and coffee prices while middlemen involvement had a negative influence. There is need for enhanced value adding and farmers involvement in the upstream value chain as well as strengthening the cooperative societies’ role in coffee marketing for more accountability and increased incomes.
Do combined sustainable agricultural intensification practices improve smallholder farmers welfare? Evidence from eastern and western Kenya
(UoEm, 2024-02-21) Nyarindo, Wilckyster Nyateko; Mugera, Amin; Hailu, Atakelty; Obare, Gideon Aiko
Smallholder farmers often bundle different sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) practices to boost crop yield and address soil fertility challenges. However, there is a dearth of empirical studies that investigate farmers’ adoption of SAI bundles and their subsequent impacts. Using data from a three-wave panel survey of smallholder maize-legume producers in Kenya, we examine the adoption and payoffs from 10 SAI practices clustered into five dominant groups. We use a random effects multinomial logit model to determine the choice of SAI cluster at the plot level while controlling for unobserved individual heterogeneity. The results show that the number of extension contacts, farm labor availability, household wealth, and education of household heads positively and significantly affect the adoption of SAI clusters while renting plots and poor soil quality have negative effects. The multinomial endogenous treatment effects model results reveal significant variability in crop yield, total variable cost, revenue, and net income across the five SAI clusters. The benefits vary by crop system, region, and cropping year, indicating that a one-size-fits-all extension design is unsuitable for farmers. The study suggests the promotion of participatory extension policies that would allow locally adaptable and highly profitable bundles of SAI practices to be identified, refined, and disseminated
Determinants of adoption and adoption intensity of integrated soil fertility management technologies among sorghum farmers in Upper Eastern Kenya
(UoEm, 2023-08-03) Kiprotich, Shadrack; Mogaka, Hezron; Ndirangu, Samuel Njiri; Nyambane Onyari, Charles
Climate change manifestations and population pressure are some of the most critical challenges that affect agricultural productivity. Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technologies are among the agricultural innovations that have been developed to address declining crop productivity. These technologies have been promoted across diverse areas including marginal agro- ecological zones. Despite the nobility and versatility of ISFM technologies, their adoption is still low particularly across Kenya landscapes. Consequently, there is limited knowledge explaining the adoption of these technologies especially in the dry areas. This study therefore, applied Cragg's Double Hurdle model to determine the factors affecting adoption and adoption intensity of ISFM technologies among farmers in Upper Eastern Kenya, who mainly grow sorghum both as a food and a cash crop. The results revealed that gender, dependants, farming goal for subsistence purpose (p < .01), decision on information use, farm size, extension services, research awareness, ISFM awareness and ISFM access, significantly affected household decision on adoption of ISFM technologies. On the other hand, gender of household head, farm size, main source of agricultural information and formal agricultural training had significant influence on adoption intensity of ISFM technologies. There is a thus a crucial need for integration of determinants surrounding adoption and adoption intensity of ISFM technologies in policy making and planning processes to enhance sorghum crop productivity in marginal Upper Eastern areas of the country.
Analysis of the factors affecting farm-level output of mangoes among small-scale farmers in Mwala Sub-County, Kenya
(2022-06) Isaboke, Hezron N.; Musyoka, Kennedy
The factors affecting farm-level output of mangoes among small-scale farmers in Mwala Sub-County, Kenya were examined. The first stage of regression analysis resulted that family and hired labour, amount of pesticides and manure had positively significant affected on mango farm-level output. The results on the second stage of the factor affecting mango output was household size, farming income, area allocated to mango farming (farm size), amount of credit, and extension contacts which exhibited positively affected on mango output, while cost of pesticides and manure precipitated had negatively affected. The study recommended that relevant authorities should strengthen the extension contact for encouraging farmers to practice the best and recommended management practices on mango farming to improve production. Furthermore, small-scale mango farmers accessed to functional input markets would enhance farm-level mango output.
Analysis of the determinants of farmer participation in sorghum farming among small-scale farmers in Siaya County, Kenya
(Elsevier Ltd., 2020-09-16) Okeyo, Samuel; Ndirangu, Samuel N.; Isaboke, Hezron N.; Njeru, Lucy K; Omenda, Jane A
Sorghum as a drought tolerant crop provides an alternative opportunity towards increasing food production in the face of global climate change, mostly affecting Sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya is in the fore front in increasing the production of sorghum since its landmass is 80 percent arid and semi-arid. Few studies have evaluated farm and farmer related characteristics affecting adoption of sorghum production. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine how selected factors affect the propensity of farmers to adopt sorghum production in Siaya County, Kenya. A total of 300 households were randomly selected as respondents in four sub-counties under sorghum production. Data was collected using semistructured interview schedules administered to the selected farm households. The selected factors were subjected to descriptive analysis, while binary logistic regression model was applied for the quantitative analysis of the effect of these factors on adoption of sorghum production. The results of the regression analysis reveal that farm size, land size allocated to maize, beans and groundnut enterprise, land ownership and access to training significantly affected adoption of sorghum farming. The study underscores the significant impact of resource allocation decisions on uptake of sorghum production among farm households. Our findings show that farmers with larger farms are more likely to adopt sorghum production. However, due to industrial demand and food security potential of sorghum, we recommend that the extension service providers should also incentivize those with smaller farms to participate in sorghum production. Policies that will make sorghum enterprise more competitive over other crops, both at the farm and market level, are key. In addition, agricultural development policies should target provision of such services like training to streamline sorghum production in the arid and semi-arid areas in Kenya.
Distribution, abundance and natural enemies of the invasive tomato leafminer, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) in Kenya
(cambridge university press, 2021-05-17) Kinyanjui, G; Khamis, F M; Ombura, F L O; Kenya, E U; Ekesi, S; Mohamed, S A
Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) has become a serious menace to sustainable production of tomato in Kenya. A survey was conducted between April 2015 and June 2016 to determine its distribution, abundance, infestation, and damage levels on tomato, and associated natural enemies. Trap counts of T. absoluta moths were recorded in all surveyed 29 counties, which indicated its nationwide distribution irrespective of altitude. Tuta absoluta was present in both open fields and greenhouses. The highest moth/trap/day was 115.38 ± 15.90. Highest leaf infestation was 92.22% and the highest number of mines and larvae per leaf were 3.71 ± 0.28 and 2.16 ± 0.45, respectively. Trap captures in terms of moth/trap/day were linearly and positively related to leaf infestations in open fields (R2 = 0.81) and greenhouses (R2 = 0.61). Highest fruits' infestation and damage were 60.00 and 59.61%, respectively, while the highest number of mines per fruit was 7.50 ± 0.50. Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) and Macrolophus pygmaeus (Rambur) were identified as predators of T. absoluta larvae. Nine species of larval parasitoids were recovered from infested foliage, with a combined parasitism of 7.26 ± 0.65%. Hockeria species was the most dominant (31.25%) and accounted for 12.88 ± 1.47% parasitism. Two species of larval parasitoids, Hockeria and Necremnus were obtained from sentinel plants with an average parasitism of 1.13 ± 0.25. The overall abundance and parasitism rates of recovered natural enemies were low to effectively control the field populations of T. absoluta. These findings form the basis of researching and developing effective and sustainable management strategies for the pest.
Extension-Market Linkages on Banana Commercialisation Among Smallholder Farmers in Meru Region, Kenya
(Journal of Agricultural Extension, 2022-01) Kirimi, Florence Kaumi; Onyari, Charles Nyambane; Njeru, Lucy Karega; Mogaka, Hezron Rasugu
The study examined the effect of extension-market linkages on banana commercialisation among smallholder farmers in the Meru region, Kenya. The study sampled 400 farmers from a target population of 288,802 from the Meru region. The Tobit model was used to analyse the effect of extension-market linkages on banana commercialisation. The results revealed that sources of marketing information (Coef. -0.06) had a negative influence on farmers commercialising banana production. The result showed that the reliability of local extension service providers in enabling farmer’s access to market information (Coef. 0.04) had a positive influence on farmers commercialising banana production. The findings also showed that users of marketing information in the commercialisation banana business (Coef. 0.63) had a positive influence on farmers commercialising banana production. The study concludes that there was an association between extension marketing linkages and banana commercialization among smallholder farmers in Meru region, Kenya. Government should create and implement more policies that will favour and encourage farmers to commercialise bananas. This will help farmers increase their income.
Determinants of Participation of Smallholder Farmers in Weather Index Insurance in Embu County, Kenya
(Journal of Agricultural Extension, 2021-07) Isaboke, Hezron Nyarindo
The study examined how multiple factors influence participation of farmers in Weather Index Insurance WII in Embu County, Kenya. Data wer e collected from a sample of 401 smallholders following multi stage sampling technique The study employed the Cragg ’s Double Hurdle model in determining factors that influence participation and extent of participation in WII. Results revealed th at short rain season, household size, land size, perception of the household head on WII , owners h ip of a mobile phone a nd location of the farm were important factors in explaining participation in WII. The distance to a registered agro veterinary products outlet, insurance premium , group membership, the weather station in Runyenjes station and distan c e to the local weather station influenced probability to participate negatively. Similarly, ownership of mobile phone had a positive influence on the extent of participation in WII while the size of the household, distance to a registered agro veterinary p roducts outlet and land size were significant with a negative influence. The findings of this study highlight the importance of shaping farmers’ perceptions to wards WII, promotion of policies that allow for access and use of information and communication t echnologies ( such as mobile phones by the farming households as a pathway to providing smart so lutions to smallholder farmers in dealing with weather rela ted risks . Further, the research recommends for development of policies that would ensure modest WII insurance premiums that are aligned to the unique need s of the smallholder farmers.
Factors Influencing Adoption of Improved Cultivars of Macadamia (Macadamia spp.) among Small-Scale Farmers in Embu County, Kenya
(Journal of Agricultural Extension, 2021-10) Njiru, Moses Muchangi; Mogaka, Hezron Ruzungu; Ndirangu, Samuel Njiir; Gichimu, Bernard Mukiri
The study investigated the factors influencing adoption of improved cultivars of macadamia (Macadamia spp.) among small-scale farmers in Embu County, Kenya. Data was collected from a sample of 384 small-scale farmers obtained through multistage sampling procedure in ten sub-locations. Binary Logit model was used to determine the effect of selected institutional and socio-economic factors on adoption of improved cultivars of macadamia. The results revealed that education level (wald=26.160), access to extension services (wald=6.246) and farm size (wald=4.271) had significant positive influence on adoption of improved cultivars of macadamia while age of the farmer (wald=5.235) and market distance (wald=5.519) had a negative influence on the same. There is need to encourage the youth to embrace macadamia farming and to develop smart marketing strategies to promote adoption of improved cultivars.
Determinants of Farmers’ Knowledge on Soil and Water Conservation Technologies in Dry Zones of Central Highlands, Kenya
(Journal of Agricultural Extension, 2021-10) Njenga, Maureen W.; Mugwe, Jayne N.; Mogaka, Hezron R.; Nyabuga, George; Oduor, Nathan; Kiboi, Milka; Ngetich, Felix; Mucheru-Muna, Monicah; Sijali, Isaya; Mugendi, Daniel
This study ascertained the socioeconomic determinants of farmers’ knowledge on soil and water conservation technologies in Dry zones of Central Highlands of Kenya involving 400 farming households. Results showed that the majority of the farmers had inadequate knowledge on the use and benefits of soil and water conservation technologies. The socio-economic factors that influence knowledge levels of the knowledge-intensive technologies were education level, gender, perceptions on soil fertility, farmer group membership, access to training, farm size, access to credit, number of livestock kept and access to farm equipment. This implies that there is the need to come up with an all-inclusive policy that can be employed in improving farmer’s level of knowledge through the use of more innovative methods of information dissemination. This can be done by strengthening the existing farmer groups, enhancing extension services, and also formulating gender-friendly policies.
Determinants of smallholders farmers' participation in collective marketing of maize in the central highlands of Kenya
(African Journal of Rural Development, 2019-06-30) Mogaka, Hezron; Mugwe, Jayne; Ayieko, David, M; Bett, Eric, k
Collective marketing has been proposed as a solution to the problem of poor access to markets in developing nations. However, smallholders’ market participation is still limited. This study assessed farmers’ perception of the benefits and challenges in collective marketing, and identified the determinants of smallholder farmers’ participation in collective marketing of maize from 126 households in the central highlands of Kenya. Logistic regression model was used to analyze factors explaining farmers’ participation in collective marketing. The key benefits of collective marketing were better prices and low cost of inputs, while the main challenges were poor infrastructure, disagreement among members and lack of credit. Gender of household head, years of farming experience, training on market information search, keeping records, ability to search market information, marketing group size, extension contact frequency and group meeting frequency were significantly associated with farmers participation in collective marketing. Participation in collective marketing could be improved by targeting women already organized in groups, offering training to households on record keeping, enhanced extension contacts, improving marketing group operations and searching for markets.
Household socio-economic factors influencing choice of agro-advisory dissemination pathways for climate change in semi-arid areas of Kenya
(Sage publishers, 2021-07-02) Onyango, Debra, A; Mogaka, Hezron; Ndirangu, Samuel; Kizito, Kwena
Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is adversely affected by climate change and variability due to the dependence of its economies and livelihoods primarily on rain-fed agriculture. This creates the need for agro-advisories to enable farming communities make strategic and tactical farm level investment decisions likely to minimize on the impacts of climate change and seasonal variability induced risks. Agro-advisories boost informed decision-making as well as planning of farm activities. Farmers have often failed to get such information where the need is greatest especially in a form they can understand and use. The purpose of this study was to characterize the pathways through which farmers receive usable location-specific agro-advisories as well as to evaluate the effect of the socio-economic environment in the access of such information. Data was collected from 400 randomly selected households in lower eastern Kenya in a cross-sectional survey. Multivariate probit regression was used to determine the factors that are significant in influencing the choice of pathways used in accessing climate change adaptation information. The study recommends that the significant factors be considered in efforts geared towards promoting agro-advisory preparation and dissemination to improve adaptation to climate variability and change in dryland areas.
Extension-Market Linkages on Banana Commercialisation Among Smallholder Farmers in Meru Region, Kenya
(2022-01) Kirimi, Florence K.; Onyari, Charles N.; Njeru, Lucy K.; Mogaka, Hezron R.
The study examined the effect of extension-market linkages on banana commercialisation among smallholder farmers in the Meru region, Kenya. The study sampled 400 farmers from a target population of 288,802 from the Meru region. The Tobit model was used to analyse the effect of extension-market linkages on banana commercialisation. The results revealed that sources of marketing information (Coef. -0.06) had a negative influence on farmers commercialising banana production. The result showed that the reliability of local extension service providers in enabling farmer’s access to market information (Coef. 0.04) had a positive influence on farmers commercialising banana production. The findings also showed that users of marketing information in the commercialisation banana business (Coef. 0.63) had a positive influence on farmers commercialising banana production. The study concludes that there was an association between extension marketing linkages and banana commercialization among smallholder farmers in Meru region, Kenya. Government should create and implement more policies that will favour and encourage farmers to commercialise bananas. This will help farmers increase their income.
Effect of on-farm testing on adoption of banana production technologies among smallholder farmers in Meru region, Kenya
(Emerald, 2021-08) Kirimi, Florence Kaumi; Onyari, Charles N.; Njeru, Lucy K.; Mogaka, Hezron N.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of on-farm testing on the adoption of banana production technologies among smallholder farmers in the Meru region, Kenya. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a pragmatic paradigm and a cross-sectional survey design, sampling 370 and 30 farmers proportionately from 269,499 to 19,303 smallholder banana farmers in Meru and Tharaka-Nithi Counties of Kenya, respectively. Findings – The study revealed that there was an association between belonging to a banana farming testing group and the adoption of banana technology. The study also revealed that most farmers were not interested in adopting banana technologies as they preferred the use of conventional methods, due to unstable market prices, lack of subsidized banana production input, inaccessibility to technological materials, few extension experts and lack of enough demonstrations. Research limitations/implications – Some respondents were not willing to freely offer the information required for this study. This was delimited by assuring the informants of the confidentiality of their responses. Originality/value – The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The agricultural extension service providers will have more light on the underlying issues that need to be considered if meaningful interventions are to be done on various aspects of the banana value chain.
Smallholder Coffee Productivity as Affected by Socioeconomic Factors and Technology Adoption
(Hindawi, 2021-02) Wambua, Daniel M.; Gichimu, Bernard M.; Ndirangu, Samuel N.
Despite the increase in area under coffee in Kenya in the last decade, productivity has been on the decline. Numerous production technologies have been developed through on-station research but there has been limited on-farm research to assess the impact of these technologies at the farm level. On the other hand, smallholder farmers are endowed differently and this would positively or negatively affect the adoption of recommended technologies and hence coffee productivity. -is study was carried out to evaluate the effects of socioeconomic factors and technology adoption on smallholder coffee productivity at the farm level. -e study employed stratified random sampling where 376 farmers were randomly sampled from six cooperative societies which had been preselected using probability proportional to the size sampling technique. -e effects of socioeconomic factors and technology adoption on coffee productivity were analyzed using the stochastic Cobb-Douglas production function. -e study revealed that off-farm income, access to credit, type of land tenure, and land size had significant positive effects on coffee productivity. -erefore, coffee farmers should be encouraged to diversify their income sources and to embrace credit financing, as the government reviews land use policies to avail adequate agricultural land. -e study further revealed that the adoption of recommended application rates of manure, fungicides, and pesticides had significant positive effects on coffee productivity. -e adoption of these technologies should therefore be enhanced among small-scale farmers to improve coffee productivity at the farm level.
Analysis of the determinants of farmer participation in sorghum farming among small-scale farmers in Siaya County, Kenya
(Elsevier, 2020-09) Okeyo, Samuel O.; Ndirangu, Samuel N.; Isaboke, Hezron N.; Njeru, Lucy K.; Omenda, Jane A.
Sorghum as a drought tolerant crop provides an alternative opportunity towards increasing food production in the face of global climate change, mostly affecting Sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya is in the fore front in increasing the production of sorghum since its landmass is 80 percent arid and semi-arid. Few studies have evaluated farm and farmer related characteristics affecting adoption of sorghum production. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine how selected factors affect the propensity of farmers to adopt sorghum production in Siaya County, Kenya. A total of 300 households were randomly selected as respondents in four sub-counties under sorghum production. Data was collected using semi-structured interview schedules administered to the selected farm households. The selected factors were subjected to descriptive analysis, while binary logistic regression model was applied for the quantitative analysis of the effect of these factors on adoption of sorghum production. The results of the regression analysis reveal that farm size, land size allocated to maize, beans and groundnut enterprise, land ownership and access to training significantly affected adoption of sorghum farming. The study underscores the significant impact of resource allocation decisions on uptake of sorghum production among farm households. Our findings show that farmers with larger farms are more likely to adopt sorghum production. However, due to industrial demand and food security potential of sorghum, we recommend that the extension service providers should also incentivize those with smaller farms to participate in sorghum production. Policies that will make sorghum enterprise more competitive over other crops, both at the farm and market level, are key. In addition, agricultural development policies should target provision of such services like training to streamline sorghum production in the arid and semi-arid areas in Kenya.
Extension training for banana value addition among smallholder farmers in Meru and Tharaka-Nithi counties, Kenya
(Academic Journals, 2021-04) Kirimi, Florence K.; Nyambane, Charles O.; Njeru, Lucy K.; Mogaka, Hezron R.
Extension training is intended to increase the efficiency and performance of the human resource that acts responsibly in a society based on a communication interaction with knowledge sources. The main objective of this study was to assess the effect of training farmers on banana value addition among smallholder farmers in Meru and Tharaka-Nithi counties. The study adopted a pragmatic paradigm and a cross-sectional survey design and sampled 370 and 30 farmers proportionately obtained from 269,499 and 19,303 smallholder banana farmers in Meru and Tharaka-Nithi counties, respectively. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data from the respondents. Secondary data were obtained from official extension and production records in the two counties as well as related literature. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics to determine frequencies, percentages and means. Regression analysis was conducted to examine relationships between the study variables. The results revealed that there was an association between training farmers on the various method of banana value addition and adoption of selected banana value addition technologies was statistically significant at 1% level of significance (p-value = 0.000<0.01,  =156.391, df 1). The study concludes that farmers having a preferred facilitator in training positively influenced the adoption of banana value addition technologies. The study recommends the government should create and implement policies such as collaborating with high learning institution like universities and set days where they will be training farmers on various methods of banana value addition.
Comparing productivity of rice under system of rice intensification and conventional flooding: A switching regression approach
(Academic Journals, 2020-10) Kaloi, Francis Kadipo; Isaboke, Hezron N.; Onyari, Charles N.; Njeru, Lucy K.
This paper examined the factors influencing rice productivity in Mwea Irrigation Scheme using the System of rice intensification (SRI) and conventional flooding (CF). Stratified sampling was used to obtain 364 smallholder rice farmers for interviewing. Data collection was done with the aid of a semistructured questionnaire and analyzed using the Endogenous Switching regression Model (ESRM). The results of ESRM revealed that factors such as household size, access to extension services, involvement in off-farm work, distance from the canal, farm size, labour use, access to credit services and years spent in rice farming were found to be significant in explaining variations in rice productivity. Furthermore, the gross margin analysis showed that the returns of SRI outweigh the returns of CF, thus making SRI more profitable than CF. The study therefore recommends that Kenya government should enhance engagement with development partners to pay attention to all significant factors which are important in making decisions in the two practices of rice production.

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