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.
