Assessment of Differences in Small Farmer Uses of Produce and Determinants of Marketed Surplus of Green Grams and Pigeon Peas in Semi-arid Machakos County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Small farmers in semi-arid areas of eastern Kenya produce green grams and pigeon peas for both subsistence and income. Because of this, it was important for a detailed investigation on the difficulty of raising marketed surplus (produce) of green grams and pigeon peas. The literature with respect to how small farmers differed in the uses of the produce and the determinants of marketed surplus is sparse. The objectives of the study therefore were to assess the differences in farm retention (for self-consumption, seed and payments in kind) and marketed surplus and to determine the factors affecting marketed surplus. Survey research design was selected for making the observations. Sampling of the households was done using a multistage technique. There were 364 households selected in two agro-ecological zones, each with 182 respondents. Data collection was done using a well-structured questionnaire. Data analysis was done using the IBM SPSS Statistics 21. One-way analysis of variance results indicated that farmers of green grams and pigeon peas differed significantly in the produce consumed, marketed and used as seed and in-kind transactions. Green grams farmers differed significantly at F_{(3, 1 452)} = 11.420, p = 0.000, whereas pigeon peas small farmers at F_{(3, 1 452)}= 21.680, p = 0.000. Multiple linear regression analysis results showed factors influencing farmers in marketed produce of green grams as area cultivated, yield and region of production at p = 0.01. Seeds and in-kind transactions showed positive effect at p = 0.05, whereas access to market information at p = 0.1. The factors influencing farmers on marketed production of pigeon peas were seeds and in-kind transactions and the price of output (p = 0.01). The study concluded that the design of policy interventions therefore needed to take account of small farmer variations and the factors influencing the marketed production of green grams and pigeon peas.

KEYWORDS:

• area cultivated
• in-kind transactions
• marketed produce
• price of output
• region of production
• seed retention
• yield

Acknowledgements

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada, and with the financial support of the Government of Canada, provided by Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD). We also acknowledge the support of Lutta W Muhammad and Gordon M Hickey, principal investigators of the KARI-McGill Food Security Project. The authors also gratefully thank the Director, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) for the facilitation, farmers for their cooperation during the surveys and the field staff for collecting and ensuring quality data.