Social, economic and institutional factors influencing drip irrigation technology uptake among small scale horticultural farmers in Subukia Sub County Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

The importance of irrigation in increasing agricultural productivity in arid and semi arid areas in Kenya cannot be underscored. Several efforts and resources from both the government and donor community have been expended for promotion of irrigation technology to increase food production over the years in Subukia, Nakuru County. Despite this investment, adoption levels have remained low. Therefore, this study aimed at analyzing the social, economic and institutional factors influencing adoption of drip irrigation technology among smallholder horticulture farmers in Subukia. The study was based on rate adoption theory. The target populations for the study were all the smallholder horticultural farmers in Lari Wendani irrigation scheme, Subukia Sub County, comprising of both adopters and non-adopters. A census study was used, since the total numbers of farmers in the scheme are 277.Data was collected by use of structured questionnaires. Descriptive measures and logit model were used for data analysis. Descriptive statistical analysis showed the demographic and socio-economic characteristic of the households. In identifying the reasons for poor technology adoption among smallholder horticultural farmers in Subukia, the study provides important information that can contribute to policy formulation. Results showed that social factors, such as farmer experience β = 0.5607,p = 0.0000 ,age β = 0.1125 , p = 0.000 economic factors , off farm income β = 0.0254, p = 0.000, farm size β = 0.0581, p = 0.0411 and institutional factors such as, access to credit β = 0.0608,p = 0.0040, access to extension services β = 0.0879, p = 0.0000, land tenure β = 0.0098, p = 0.0020 and source of extension knowledge β = 2.5914, p = 0.0000 significantly affected adoption of drip irrigation technology among small scale horticultural farmers in Subukia, Nakuru County. It is recommended that Government and other stakeholders should help in developing institutional interventions to encourage adoption of drip irrigation for instance by employing more extension personnel. Key policy principles in promoting adoption of drip irrigation should clearly focus on long term strategies to aggressively invest in agricultural extension but also make credit easily available to farmers. Another policy recommendation is for the government to provide arrangement that will enable secured land tenure such as land use planning and good land governance by both institutions of state and that of society as an incentive for successful adoption and scaling-out of drip irrigation technology by farmers in Subukia, Nakuru County.