Soya bean crop development in Kenya

The paper describes the introduction of commercial Soya Bean growing in the Districts of Kisii, South Nyanza and Narok. Focus is put on agronomic and infrastructural problems and proposals are being made on further expansion of Soya Bean growing in Kenya

Managing extension staff: Two experiments in Kenya

This paper focusses on techniques for managing agricultural extension staff. A system of staff meetings, recording and reporting is described, which was tested in the Mbere Special Rural Development Programme area. The purpose of this system was to provide closer supervision of the routine activities of agricultural extension staff, and its achievements and limitations'in meeting this goal are discussed here. A system of inservice training and planning workshops associated: with new and/or more comprehensive extension activities was tested in Kisii and Homa Bay. This is basically a management system for extension planning which provides a tool for the effective participation of grassroots level field staff. The two management systems are considered complementary, and it is proposed that they be combined to form a useful management tool for agricultural extension

New extension methods to speed up diffusion of agricultural innovations

This paper is based on field experiments carried out by researchers at the University of Nairobi's Institute for Development Studies in collaboration with Kenya District Agricultural Offices. The research has aimed at developing more efficient methods for stimulating diffusion of agricultural innovations and at the same time reducing the dualistic pattern of rural development . The governments of many developing countries have based their agricultural extension services on the diffusion theory of E.M. Rogers (Diffusion of Innovation, New York, Free Press, 1962), directing their efforts to the 'most progressive' farmers, with the expectation that the adoption of innovations would trickle down to the majority of farmers -- the 'less progressive'. Yet many researchers and planners have realised that under conditions of dualistic development agricultural innovations are rarely communicated in this direction, and furthermore, when extension efforts are directed towards the most progressive farmers the division in rural society is actually aggravated. Thus researchers and politicians in Kenya have sought alternative approaches to agricultural extension which will reach the majority of farmers without requiring a greatly expanded level of investment The research has shown that in a situation of dualistic rural development communications from more progressive farmers to less progressive farmers tend to break down. However, there is intense communication of agricultural innovations among farmers on the same or similar level of progressiveness, and more progressive farmers also readily adopt innovations from less progressive farmers if they perceive that it is to their advantage. Thus diffusion is maximised when innovations are introduced through less progressive farmers, even though it is more difficult to make less progressive farmers successful first adopters of an innovation. This paper reports on experiments carried out within the government extension organisation to find out how this can be done. The results are considered clearly encouraging

Rapid development for Kenya's small farms

The proposed research aims at developing more efficient replicable extension strategies for income generating innovations. The basic concept, theoretically founded, is to change the target groups for the extension service. Traditionally most progressive farmers are being approached to become first adopters of an innovation. The large majority of farmers (less progressives) is reached by a very slow diffusion process only and often the diffusion process completely leaves out a major part of the farmers. If less progressives (below average) are approached to become the first adopters, the diffusion process from them to the top progressives is very quick and the diffusion process among the target group itself is quicker and reaches more. This is founded on communication - and social stratification factors. The practical problem, however, seems to be the greater difficulty in making less, progressives first adopters. This problem could be solved by an appropriate package extension method already successfully tested in the "Tetu Project”. The only major problem with "Tetu", the very limited number of farmers which can be reached by this extension method, could be solved by taking the training out of the FTCs to the field and by approaching the farmers in groups. Summing up, the research therefore aims at: a) further testing of the new strategy, b) developing and evaluating methods of approaching farmers in groups, c) improving the replicability of the more efficient extension strategies and methods, and d) promoting their replication

Male involvement in maternal healthcare as a determinant of utilisation of skilled birth attendants in Kenya

Objective: To determine whether there is a relationship between male involvement in maternal health and utilisation of skilled birth attendants (SBAs) after controlling for socio-demographic and maternal characteristics.Design: Data from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) conducted in 2008–09 were analysed.Setting: Nationally representative survey in Kenya.Subjects: The unit of analysis was couples who met the inclusion criteria of being married and having had a child in the three years before the survey.Results: The adjusted odds ratio after controlling for other factors indicates that women whose husbands attended at least one ANC visit were more likely to have skilled birth attendance than those whose husbands did not attend any ANC visits [AOR, 1.9; 95 percent CI, 1.09-3.32]. Maternal characteristics that had a statistically significant association with delivery by an SBA included educational level, employment, number of ANC visits, and parity. The province where the couple resided also was statistically significant.Conclusion: In Kenya a male partner’s participation, through attending ANC visits, is associated with a woman’s use of an SBA during delivery

IGG-antibody seroprevalence of West Nile Virus among blood donors in Nairobi and Nakuru regional blood transfusion testing centers in Kenya

Background: West Nile Virus (WNV) is an arbovirus transmitted by infected mosquitoes which cause most of its incidence (CDC, 2015). It is transmitted by the culex mosquito which is prevalent in Kenya.Objective: To determine and compare the sero prevalence of WNV among blood donors in Nairobi and Nakuru Regional blood transfusion testing centers in Kenya.Study design: A cross-sectional studySetting: It was carried out in two Regional Blood Transfusion Centers (RBTCs) which are based in Nairobi and Nakuru. These two centers are associated with possible low and high prevalence respectively.Subject: A total of 180 blood samples were randomly selected over a period of one month. These blood samples were tested for WNV IgG using ELISA. Results: Majority of the donors were below 35 years of age and were predominantly male. WNV IgG prevalence was 15% in blood donors (95% CI 10-20.5%). Prevalence of cross infection of TTI and WNV was 8.3% (95% CI 4.4- 12.2%). The prevalence of WVN IgG was highest in the 19-35 years’ age group (16.5%) and females (21.6%) though the results were not statistically significant. There was no difference in the IgG positivity between the different centers.Conclusion: Infection with WNV should be of public health concern because about a fifth of those infected with WNV develop illness. About 10% of those who develop neurological symptoms succumb to the disease

Effect of nutrition education and dairy group membership on nutrition knowledge, practices and diet quality for rural Kenyan farm women

The typical high-starch, low diversity diet in developing countries is associated withundernutrition, morbidity and mortality. Previous research with households inMukurwe-ini Division (Central Kenya) found that members of a community-baseddairy development group were more food secure and had higher intake of certainmicronutrients compared with non-members; however, the prevalence of inadequateintake of multiple micronutrients was high among all women. A nutrition educationintervention was developed to enhance women’s nutrition knowledge and food skills toultimately improve diet quality and micronutrient intakes for women and their families.In addition, it was proposed that the intervention effects would be greater for dairygroup members. The Mukurwe-ini study group consisted of 88 women in four dairymembership-duration categories (n=4 x 22) and non-member women (n=23). The studygroup was previously selected using chain referral sampling. For the intervention,women from each duration-group and non-member women were randomly allocated tointervention (n=55) and control (n=56) groups. Nutrition knowledge and dietary intake(24-hour recall) data were collected from all women over three weeks immediatelyprior to the intervention (baseline) and again, six months post-intervention, inindividual face-to-face interviews. The intervention encouraged food-based strategiesto improve intake of vitamin A, iron and zinc and was developed and delivered incollaboration with a Kenyan dietitian. WFood2 was used to compute food and nutrientintakes, dietary diversity and the phytate:zinc molar ratio. Descriptive statistics andlinear and logistic regressions analyses were performed using Stata10. Independent ofdairy-group membership, a larger proportion of intervention group women, comparedto control group women, had the targeted nutrition knowledge and practiced thestrategies to improve intake of vitamin A (76% vs 67%, respectively) and zinc and iron(soaked beans and maize 80% vs 13%; avoided tea with meals 67 % vs 5%,respectively). A positive effect of the intervention on dietary diversity was dependenton dairy-group membership status. Positive intervention effects on intake of vitamin Aand C were found for non-member women. This study provided evidence that certainintervention effects were dependent on poverty reduction and that all women were ableto make positive dietary changes when informed. There is a need to examine longertermimpacts of nutrition education interventions and to explore effective methods todisseminate nutrition information and food-based strategies.Key words: nutrition intervention, micronutrients, food-based strategy, rural, women,dairy, smallholder farme

Assurance of marketed milk quality in Kenya

Food safety standards require the implementation of specific standards from production-to-consumption. The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) is now a widely accepted methodology in risk analysis for industrially processed foods. The application of HACCP is a bigger challenge in developing countries where food market channels are less formal.. This study adapted a HACCP methodology to assess health risks at different points in the informal milk marketing network. Key critical control points identified for high total bacterial counts were channels with multiple transaction points which took considerable time from the farm without refrigeration facilities. High coliform counts were associated with the use of plastic versus metal containers. Approximately 13% of samples were adulterated with added water. Recommendations for procedures to improve milk quality and how these can be communicated to farmers, market agents and consumers are proposed and discussed

All Together Now: A Framework for Research on Mob Programming

Mob programming (MP) is a relatively new phenomenon in software development. So far, the academic literature has not published in this domain. The goal of this paper is to develop a framework for researching the MP phenomenon. We first outline current practitioner descriptions of and justifications for MP. We then examine concepts from team theory and practices from agile development to identify the team processes and taskwork involved in MP. Based on these, we present a research framework for the academic study of MP. We conclude by considering how the framework can be used by IS researchers