PROF. NYIKAL ROSE ADHIAMBO

Agriculture has the potential to improve dietary diversity through farm production diversity if farming households consume what they produce. However, the linkages between a household’s own agricultural production and dietary diversity are not well understood. This study uses a count of crop species, animal species, production diversity score, and the Simpson’s index as measures of farm production diversity to assess the effect of production diversity on the dietary diversity of households, women and children. A Poison model was employed on a sample of 779 farming households selected using a multistage sampling technique in a household survey representative at the County level in Kisii and Nyamira Counties, Kenya. The findings of the study indicate that farm production diversity is significantly associated with the dietary diversity of women and that of the entire household, but is not associated with the dietary diversity of children. The count of the animal species has the highest magnitude of association with dietery diversity in this study. Every additional animal species kept leads to a 0.33 and 0.13 increase in household dietery diversity and the dietery diversity of women respectively. Children’s dietary diversity is significantly associated with the education of the mother, household size and age of the child. The study highlights the need to consider individual dietary requirements when developing nutrition interventions and policy, as opposed to general dietary interventions targeting the entire household.

This paper evaluates the impact of variety awareness and nutrition knowledge on the adoption of biofortified crop varieties using a sample of 661 households from Kisii and Nyamira counties in Kenya. The study employs the average treatment effect (ATE) framework to control for information on the KK15 bean variety and knowledge of its nutritional attributes among small-scale farmers. The results show that farmers who had knowledge of the nutritional attributes of KK15 beans were more likely to adopt relative to those who were only aware of the variety. A nutrition attribute knowledge gap of 8% was estimated, which represents the potential adoption loss due to a lack of knowledge of the nutritional benefits. Adoption of biofortified crops can therefore be improved by disseminating information on the varieties and their nutritional attributes. This can be achieved by entrenching nutrition information in extension packages disseminated to farmers.

As the world population increases there is pressure on agriculture to supply more food, fiber and fuel. This has led to the continual
expansion of agricultural land in to arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) resulting in land degradation. In particular, in sub-Sahara Africa, low soil fertility is
one of the most constraining factors to agriculture productivity. Initiatives to address soil fertility through use of inorganic fertilizers have yielded below
average results in increasing productivity. Agro-ecological intensification (AEI) technique uses alternative knowledge and local materials to improve soils
and increase productivity. This study assesses the economic returns of using AEI techniques compared to simplified conventional agricultural systems.
Data was collected from on farm experiment that involved mono cropping, crop rotation and intercropping and application of organic inputs. Survey was
used to collect data on farmers‘ costs of production, yields and commodity prices from a sample of 140 households in Yatta, Kenya. Both plot and survey
data showed that significantly greater revenues were attained with the application of the AEI practices. Using legumes in intercrop system with
application of farmyard manure had the highest profit while crop rotation without application of organic input had the least. At least 28 percent of farmers
that adopt all components of the AEI technique attained significantly higher profits than farmers without any organic inputs. The study concludes AEI is a
profitable soil fertility management technique. Thus policy should recognize and promote its uptake.
Key words: Agro-ecological Intensification, Profitability, Soil Management, Cassava, Sorghum, Yatta, Kenya.

Each of the about 44 million citizens of Kenya has a duty to cooperate with the State and other persons to protect and conserve the environment for sustainable development. Responsibilities to the environment are particularly critical with respect to waste management. At the southwest of Nairobi city is the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa, Kibera slum. Waste build up in the slum is a common phenomena with visible waste mountains along the roads and public places. The main objective of this study is to assess the determinants of households' choice of solid waste management options. Using the quantitative research methodology, a survey of 250 households was carried out in the slum and a multi-stage random sampling procedure was used to select the sample. Waste management options hyphothesized in the study included solid waste reuse, burning, recycling and disposal. Data collected was analyzed by Stata software using a multinomial logit regression model (MNL). MNL was used to assess the effect of household socioeconomic and institutional attributes on the choice of household solid waste management options. Findings revealed that institutional factors such as contractual arrangements, waste management regulations of 2006, disposal returns, distance to the main road, years of schooling, family size,ownership of a slum/sack garden,community based recycling practise, disposal returns and waste segregation explain the households' choice of solid waste management options. As a result, the study recommends strong pro-poor waste management policies, community-based waste management approaches, support for informal waste recyclers, privatisation of waste management services and development of compost manure market among urban and peri-urban areas farmers.

Keywords: waste management options, household solid waste, multinomial logit model, determinants

Smallholder farmer access to agricultural finance has been a major constraint to agricultural commercialization in developing countries. The ICT revolution in Africa has however brought an opportunity to ease this constraint. The mobile phone-based money transfer services that started in Kenya urban centres have spread to rural areas and even other countries. Using these services farmers could receive funds to invest in agricultural financial transactions. This study examines the awareness of mobile phone-based money transfer services (MMT) among rural farmers in Kenya and examines the various uses of money transferred through such services. The study employs descriptive analysis and found a very high awareness of mobile phone-based money transfer services among the smallholder farmers and found predominant use of remitted funds for agricultural related purposes (purchase of seed, fertilizer for planting and topdressing, farm equipment/implements, leasing of land for farming, wages for labour). The study concludes that there is need to expand the coverage of MMT services in rural areas since it resolves an idiosyncratic market failure that farmers face namely access to financial services. It discusses the implications of these findings for policy and practice.

This study uses a multivariate probit model and the Poisson regression to examine the role of varietal attributes in farmers’ adoption of improved pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) varieties in Taita District, Kenya. It is based on data collected from 200 households stratified by adoption of improved pigeon pea varieties between April and May 2009. The study finds correlation in the decisions made by farmers to adopt different varieties, implying that using simple probit analysis could yield biased and inefficient results. The results further indicate that the major pigeon pea varietal traits driving rapid adoption are drought tolerance, pest tolerance, yield, ease of cooking, taste and price. Early maturity, a major focus of recent research, has no effect on farmers’ adoption decisions. These findings imply that developers of improved crop varieties should pay attention to consumption and market characteristics in addition to production traits to increase technology uptake and satisfy farmers’ multiple needs.

Development literature has recently promoted the use of producer organizations in linking farmers to better-paying
commodity markets. However, empirical studies find mixed performance of such organizations. This study examines the producer
organizations’ internal factors that may explain the differences in the performance of producer organizations. The study specifically
analyzes the role of social capital, within a producer organization, on the performance of such organization using quantitative
techniques. The level of commercialization is used as proxy of organization’s performance. The study finds that social capital
positively affects the performance of producer organizations. These findings imply that development strategies that target the
promotion commercialization of smallholder agriculture through producer organizations should pay attention to the internal factors
within such organizations.
Key words: Smallholder farmers, agricultural commercialization, social capital, performance of farmer organizations, Kenya.

Draft animal power (DAP) has been identified as an environmentally friendly technology that is based on renewable energy and encompasses integration of livestock and crop production systems. Draft animal technology provides farmers with a possibility to cheaply access and use manure from the draft animals and farm power needed to apply renewable practices for land intensification. Compared to motorized mechanization, DAP is viewed as an appropriate and affordable technology especially for small-scale farmers in developing countries who cannot afford the expensive fuel-powered tractor mechanization. However, it is apparent that there is no consensus among researchers on how it affects crop yields, profit and production efficiency when applied in farm operations. This study addressed the question of whether using DAP increases economic efficiency of smallholder maize producers in central Kenya. Results of the study are derived from a sample of 80 farmers, 57% of whom used draft animals while 43% used hand hoes in carrying farm operations. In the study area, draft animals are almost exclusively used for land preparation and planting, with very few farmers applying them in the consecutive operations such as weeding. A profit function was estimated to test the hypothesis of equal economic efficiency between ‘DAP’ and ‘hoe’ farms. The results showed that farmers who used DAP obtained higher yields and operated at a higher economic efficiency compared to those who used hand hoes. The analysis underscores the viability of DAP in increasing profitability of small-scale farms; however, other aspects of the technology, such as affordability of the whole DAP package, availability of appropriate implements and skills of using the technology, must be taken into account when promoting adoption of DAP technology.