Determinants of the place of sell and price of kale for Kiambu, Kenya

Kale is a major source of cash for many households in Kenya. A study of households in Kiambu district revealed that kale made the highest contribution to household income among the crops. The farmers of Kiambu sell their kale either in Nairobi, at farm gate, or at the local market and fetch different prices. The farm gate price is highest when kale is sold in Nairobi, but only a small fraction of the farmers sell kale in Nairobi. This paper endeavored to know what influenced the decision of where to sell the kale, and why the prices were so variable between destinations. The results showed that the price of kale was influenced by the place of production and distance to a local market. The results further showed that the decision to sell kale in Nairobi where the price was highest depended on labor availability, the household’s wealth status and transport access to the market. Poorer households were more likely to seek higher prices in the city than the wealthier households. Improving marketing of kale could be a way of targeting the poorer households and improving their welfare

Determinants of the Speed of Adoption of Soil Fertility-Enhancing Technologies in Western Kenya

Most adoption studies have employed cross-sectional data in a static discrete choice modelling framework to analyze why some farmers adopt at a certain point in time. The static approach does not consider the dynamic environment in which the adoption decision is made and thus does not incorporate the speed of adoption and the effect of time-dependent elements in explaining adoption. The adoption speed of an innovation is important in various aspects. Based on data from a survey of a random sample of 331 smallholder households in western Kenya, this study investigated determinants of time to adoption of mineral fertilizer, animal manure and compost using Duration analysis. Results revealed that factors that influenced timing of the adoption varied by the practices. Whilst education level of the household head, cattle ownership, location of the farm, access to extension services, and participation in land management programmes accelerated the adoption of different practices, age of household head, relative farming experience and market liberalization retarded the adoption. Gender of household head gave mixed results. To speed up adoption of the practices requires policies that promote farmers’ participation in land management programs, access to extension services and markets in addition to stratified targeting of different practices to specific locations and farmers.Adoption, duration analysis, soil nutrients, Crop Production/Industries, Land Economics/Use,

Quantifying the economic impacts of a policy shift towards legalizing informal milk trade in Kenya

This study quantifies the impacts resulting from a significant policy change associated with ILRI’s collaborative smallholder dairy research and policy advocacy activities: the policy shift toward legalisation of small scale raw milk marketing, in Kenya. A multi-market model was developed to quantify the economic impacts based on data from various datasets collected by ILRI and partners. Model results indicate sharp declines in consumer prices for milk as a result of a decline in small-scale trader transactions costs, with consequent small increases in grain production and farm income that are concentrated among rural and poorer groups

Influence pathways and economic impacts of policy change in the Kenyan dairy sector

This study is an ex post assessment of the impact of the revised Kenya dairy policy. It outlines the policy change process, investigates induced behavioral changes at the levels of field regulators and SSMVs (small-scale milk vendors), and estimates economic impacts on producers, SSMVs and consumers. It also provides a strategic assessment of the research and coordinating roles played by ILRI, recognizing that ILRI was only one partner in a complex project with many people and organizations involved, and estimates how much of the overall gains can be attributed to this research/coordination component. It was designed to evaluate the impact of a revised Kenyan dairy policy that encouraged relevant government agencies to engage with SSMVs and, in particular, to explore and analyse the role that research/coordination played in contributing to the policy change and the net benefits to the investment in the policy research component. The study describes the policy, institutional (in the broad sense of ‘rules of the game’) and behavioral changes that have occurred in Kenya’s dairy sector and how they occurred and what role the research and coordination component of SDP (Smallholder Dairy Project) played. It quantifies transaction costs and evaluates how reduced transaction costs have impacted the prices paid by consumers and those received by producers. It measures the overall economic benefits of the policy change to consumers, producers and SSMVs, and presents a counterfactual situation, depicting what might have happened if SDP had not been implemented and the dairy policy had not changed

Documenting the digital transformation of African agriculture : Use and impact of digital technologies among agricultural intermediaries

Agricultural intermediaries perform important functions in the African food and agriculture sector. Digital solutions targeted at these intermediaries could improve their service delivery while helping digital agricultural (D4Ag) service providers cover the last mile to producers. To determine how to empower agricultural intermediaries with digital technologies, it is important first to understand how they are already making use of and are impacted by these technologies in their professional activities. To this end, data was collected through 1,571 in-person interviews with extension workers, output dealers and input dealers in Ghana, Kenya, Mali and Nigeria. The results show that intermediaries make extensive use of ICTs in their work, much more so than the low adoption rates of D4Ag solutions would suggest. Mobile phones clearly dominate the digital technologies, most commonly smartphones, which are often used daily. Three areas of impact can be identified. First, ICTs facilitate information sharing between intermediaries and other value chain actors which emerged as the main activity and benefit across the three groups. Second, ICTs facilitate networking among value chain actors. In the case of dealers, these networks are mainly used for two-way business transactions while extension agents take advantage of ICTs to interact and share information with a wide range of actors. Third, ICTs reduce transaction costs for input and output dealers through better access to information about buyers, sellers and prices, better timing of produce / input purchases, faster payments from customers and reduced travel times. Given the widespread use of ICTs among agricultural intermediaries, D4Ag service providers can capitalize on intermediaries’ existing digital skills, technological capacities and digitally enabled networks to expand their reach, in particular to producers who are still not universally accessible via ICTs, but also to other actors in the African food and agriculture sector

Investigation of the governance structure of Nairobi dairy value chain and its influence on food safety

The dairy value chain of Nairobi is comprised, in its majority, of small-scale independent enterprises that operate within a complex interlinked system. In this complexity, the coordination and power structures of the system may have major influences on the management of dairy food safety. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the governance and challenges issues faced by stakeholders throughout the Nairobi dairy value chain and assess their potential implications on food safety. Qualitative data was collected through focus group discussions and key informant interviews based on a dairy value chain mapping framework previously developed. Thematic analysis enabled identification of governance themes, key challenges and their implication on food safety. Themes were organized depending on their association with farmers (informal settlement or peri-urban), dairy cooperatives, dairy traders, processing companies, retailers or government officers. The identified governance themes included: i) weak linkage between government and farmers, ii) inadequate compliance with government regulations by traders and retailers, iii) emphasis on business licenses and permits for revenue rather than for food safety, iv) multiple licensing resulting in high business cost and lack of compliance, v) fragmented regulation, vi) unfair competition and vii) sanctions that do not always result in compliance. The key challenges identified included, amongst others: i) inadequate farmer support, ii) harassment of traders and retailers and iii) high business costs by traders, retailers, dairy cooperatives and large processors. The implication of governance and challenges of food safety were, amongst others: i) inadequate extension services, ii) insufficient cold chain, iii) delivery of adulterated and low milk quality to bulking centres, iv) inadequate food safety training and v) lack of policies for management of waste milk. The range of issues highlighted are based on stakeholders’ perceptions and reflects the complexity of the relationships between them. Many of the governance themes demonstrate the linkages that are both beneficial or confrontational between the formal and informal sectors, and between industry and regulatory authorities, with possible direct food safety consequences. Findings obtained provide indications to decision-makers of potential governance areas that could help improve efficiency and food safety along the dairy value chain

Crop production and soil nutrient management : an economic analysis of households in Western and Central Kenya

The study examines how a combination of socio-economic and household factors influences farm household decisions on soil nutrient management and on crop production in two regions of Kenya (Kiambu and Vihiga). It further examines how these decisions impact on household objectives and on productivity. Emphasis is given to the use of inorganic fertilisers because this is one of the major sources of nutrients that hold considerable potential for increased productivity. A cross-sectional household level data set collected through a formal survey using pre-tested structured questionnaires is used for the investigations. Various methodological approaches are employed including descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, the dual and primal approach to analysing the farm production, and mathematical programming. Cluster analysis yielded three household types in each of the two regions, and these household types form the basis for further analysis. The most important crops to the households in Kiambu are maize, potatoes and kale, as identified through farmer perception and restricted activity profit ranking. In Vihiga maize and beans remains the sole most important combination. Demand for fertiliser is price elastic with own price elasticity of -2.44 in Kiambu and -1.88 in Vihiga. Output prices of maize and of kale in Kiambu, and of maize in Vihiga also significantly influence the demand for fertiliser with elasticities of 0.90, 0.28 and 1.58 respectively. In Kiambu, fertiliser price has very low elasticities on crop outputs, particularly of kale, which would seem to imply that fertiliser does not have a big impact on crop production. However, results fiom the primal approach show that currently labour is the constraining factor, particularly in kale production, making the impact of fertiliser obscure. In fact, increasing the level of fertiliser use will have a substantial impact on the output of all the crops analysed, in both the regions. The results confirm previous observations that households are using much lower levels of fertiliser than is optimal. If the market price of fertiliser and of the outputs is considered, the results show that households could profitably increase their level of fertiliser use on all the crops examined. However, the households' shadow price of fertiliser is much higher than the market price implying that households consider other costs that we do not observe e.g. credit constraints. ResuIts fiom mathematical programming confirm that households are liquidity constrained. The level of the credit constraint varies across the different household types based on the level of their extemal remittances relative to farm size. However, households in all the farm types require credit to enable them increase their level of fertiliser use

Fuzzy classification for farm household characterization

Most household classifications use hard classification procedures that limit a household to only one cluster. In this paper, fuzzy classification, in which individuals can belong totally, partially or not at all to a particular cluster, with membership showing how well they fit in each cluster, was tested as an alternative clustering procedure. The results show that membership values, which are an extra output of the fuzzy classification, are a useful indicator of how well a particular household fits in a given cluster. Such information is useful when choosing households to use for agricultural technology testin

Determinants of the Speed of Adoption of Soil Fertility-Enhancing Technologies in Western Kenya

Most adoption studies have employed cross-sectional data in a static discrete choice modelling framework to analyze why some farmers adopt at a certain point in time. The static approach does not consider the dynamic environment in which the adoption decision is made and thus does not incorporate the speed of adoption and the effect of time-dependent elements in explaining adoption. The adoption speed of an innovation is important in various aspects. Based on data from a survey of a random sample of 331 smallholder households in western Kenya, this study investigated determinants of time to adoption of mineral fertilizer, animal manure and compost using Duration analysis. Results revealed that factors that influenced timing of the adoption varied by the practices. Whilst education level of the household head, cattle ownership, location of the farm, access to extension services, and participation in land management programmes accelerated the adoption of different practices, age of household head, relative farming experience and market liberalization retarded the adoption. Gender of household head gave mixed results. To speed up adoption of the practices requires policies that promote farmers’ participation in land management programs, access to extension services and markets in addition to stratified targeting of different practices to specific locations and farmers