THE EFFECTS OF MARKET INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS ON SALES REVENUE AMONG FRENCH BEAN PRODUCERS: A CASE STUDY OF OL-DONYO SABUK, MACHAKOS COUNTY, KENYA

Businesses operate in a world in which information is more readily and publicly available than ever before. Thanks to the development of the Internet, information on market trends, legislation, customers, suppliers, competitors, distributors, product development and almost every other conceivable topic is available at the click of a mouse. Search engines, online libraries, company websites and other sources provide information in an increasingly plentiful, easy to find, and easy to digest way. Small-scale farmers continue to sell their French beans to middlemen at throw away prices yet there are exporting companies that can buy their beans at high prices for profitability. This has been brought about by the possible missing information about the French beans marketing trends and the profitability of the crop, limited access to the necessary capital to make the switch possible, poor infrastructure necessary to bring the crops to export outlets, high risk of the export markets (for instance, from hold-up problems selling to exporters), limited human capital necessary to adopt successfully a new agricultural technology, for instance the Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGAP) and Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs)requirements, and misperception by researchers and policy makers about the true profit opportunities and risk of crops grown for export markets. This study was conducted to assess the impact of market intelligence systems on sales revenue of French bean farmers in Ol-Donyo Sabuk of Machakos County, Kenya. To achieve this overall objective, three specific objectives were addressed, namely; (1) to establish the existing French beans marketing channels in Ol-Donyo Sabuk, (2) to compare the sales revenues of French bean farmers with and without market intelligence systems, and (3) to compare return on capital for different actors within the French bean value chain. Systemic random sampling was used to select 120 farmers for this study. Data were collected through administering questionnaire for personal interviews. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics such as percentages, and means to answer the stated objectives. In addition, statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse data. The study revealed that 30 percent of the 120 sampled French bean producers had access to French bean market intelligence systems, which is a small proportions of farmers compared to those who did not have access. The results revealed that 30 percent of the 120 sampled French bean producers were selling their produce as a group and had access to market intelligence systems 70 percent of the 120 sampled French bean producers not having access to market intelligence systems thus selling their produce to brokers. The results showed that group farmers selling their product to exporters had a higher return on capital as compared to individual farmers selling their produce to middlemen. xiii Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that the government and other key players in the horticulture industry enhance extension services to French bean producers by training them on market intelligence systems and stringent EU market requirements in order to improve on sales revenues from the crop and subsequent return on capital. Further the government establishes a French beans value addition plant that will cater for all farmers in French beans production and a high return on capital will go to Kenya economy but not to foreigners who own most of the value addition plants. This will too provide employment to many. The brokers should be removed from the production chain because they misuse farmers making profits where they did not invest and exporters would be advised to improve on their mode of produce payment and produce rejection handling.There is need to do away with hawkers and brokers within the value chain by having binding contracts and steady markets. Based on the findings, policy implications were drawn for improvingthe quality of French beans immensely by farmers through complying with GlobalGAP right from land preparation to harvesting and adhering to stipulated MRLs, proper postharvest handling of the produce with thorough grading and subsequent proper storage

Turning social capital into natural capital: Changing livelihoods of fishers through CBFM

Impact surveys revealed that CBFM had significantly improved social capital and household income of fishers. Fishers have better access to land and fishing grounds, more diversified livelihood options, greater amount of credit from multiple sources. This study also made policy recommendations to facilitate effective poverty alleviation.Fishery management, Surveys, Socioeconomic aspects

Institutional issues in the CBFM-2 project

A wide range of institutional arrangements were practiced in the Community Based Fisheries Management project in phase-1 (1994-1999) and phase-2 (2001-2007). The project documents stated that there were three main fisheries management approaches; fisher-led, community-led and women-led, however this fails to capture the full diversity of approaches adopted by 10 project partners (including DoF) during implementation. As a part of the institutionalization process, 130 CBOs were developed and established under the project as clear legal entities. In order to achieve sustainable management of the fisheries, efforts have been made towards linking these communitybased organizations (CBOs) and local institutions in CBFM-2 sites. Four regional CBO networking committees and a central committee were formed. The central committee is now being officially registered. Project partner NGOs were the main agencies involved in the CBO development process. To improve the likelihood of long-term CBO sustainability, plans have been prepared and are being implemented for project phase-out and post-project sustainability. Another important process was cluster management in CBFM. Overall, it can be concluded that the establishment of CBOs as local level institutions, cluster management and CBO networks made a positive contribution towards project implementation and should help to ensure that CBFM approaches are sustained.Fishery management

Do In-State Tuition Benefits Affect the Enrollment of Non-Citizens? Evidence from Universities in Texas

In 2001, the Texas state legislature passed House Bill 1403 and became the first state to offer in-state tuition rates at public universities for non-citizens who attended high school in the state for three years. As a result of the policy change, the cost of attending college at public universities in Texas fell dramatically for non-citizens. Using administrative data from six universities in Texas, we employ a quasi-experimental design to identify the effects of the policy change on the probability of enrollment. The results demonstrate a large and significant positive effect of lowering tuition on the enrollment of non-citizens at the University of Texas at Pan American and a positive and marginally significant effect on the probability of enrollment at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The results also suggest that the policy had a negative effect on enrollment at Southern Methodist University, a private university whose tuition was unchanged by the policy.financial aid; non-citizens; in-state tuition benefits.

Levels and causes of household food and nutrition insecurity in dryland Kenya

Ensuring food and nutrition security in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa is a critical challenge. Often, information on the level of insecurity is either scanty or unavailable. This paper looks at food and nutrition access at the household level and its determinants in two cases in one of the sub-Saharan African countries: Kenya. Data were collected from a repeat-visit survey of 50 households in two areas of Makueni District, located in the southern part of the country, during 1994–1996, a period that included ‘normal’ and drought seasons. Even in a season of normal rains, 32 to 42 per cent of households were food insecure, percentages that rose to 40 and 52 during drought. The annual incidence of food poverty was higher (46%) in the drier area than in the wetter area (36%). Food distribution among households, however, showed a reverse trend with the drier area having a Gini coefficient of 0.32 compared to 0.34 in the wetter area. Regressions were used to examine the causes of food and nutrition insecurity. Amongst the main factors improving food and nutrition security was earnings from off the farm. Households headed by women were more food secure than those headed by men, all other things being equal. These findings provide support for prioritising entitlements in terms of earnings and food prices in policy-making, rather than focusing on food production alone. They also indicate that there may be higher social returns to addressing issues of livelihoods associated with women rather than me

Effect of Acacia tortilis pods on intake, digestibility and nutritive quality of goat diets in southwestern Eritrea

Fresh Acacia tortilis pods were mixed with low quality native grass hay to form the following five rations: 100% hay (T 1), 25% pods and 75% hay (T 2), 50% pods and 50% hay (T 3), 75% pods and 25% hay (T 4) and 100% pods (T 5) on ‘as fed’weight basis. Fifteen male Barka goats, approximately one year old and 10–15kg body weight, were randomly assigned to the five rations and fed in individual pens. Chemical composition, dry matter intake (DMI), in vitro dry and organic matter digestibility and body weight changes of the animals were evaluated. The average crude protein content of the pods was about 47% higher than the 7% minimum required for normal rumen function, while that of the hay was about 13% below. Percent ash, neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF), hemi-cellulose (HC), cellulose (CL) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) contents were higher in the hay than in the pods. The pods were, however, generally higher in Ca, P, Mg and Na than the hay. Average DMI (g d -1 and g kg-1 LBW), percent in vitro dry and organic matter digestibility and body weight gains (total kg and gd -1) increased with an increase in A. tortilis pods, up to 75% level and then begun to decline. However, despite the decrease, T 5 still had significantly (P< 0.05) higher feed digestibility and body weight gains than T 2 and T3. Thus, supplementing low quality range herbage with Acacia pods can considerably improve the nutritive value of range livestock diets, particularly during the dry season when other types of fodder are of extremely low quality