Utilization of communication in the adoption of climate smart agricultural technologies among farmers in West Pokot County, Kenya

Abstract

Climate-smart agriculture is among long-term agricultural-based technologies invented and developed to spearhead sustainable agricultural development by addressing food availability and climate challenges. With this huge mandate and opportunities, the technologies have not been adequately adopted by the target farmers. This study has endeavored to explore how communication can be a potent tool to drive effective and efficient execution of agricultural programs on climate-smart and the extent to which it influences the utilization of the technologies among farmers in West Pokot, Kenya. The study is derived from the implementation of the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Project (KCSAP), a World Bank‘s five-year project (2017 – 2022) implemented in 24 counties among them West Pokot. The objectives of the study were to find out the types of communication that have been adopted by agricultural researchers to enhance the utilization of climate-smart agricultural technologies; assess the extent to which farmers in West Pokot County have adopted climate-smart agriculture based on information received from agricultural researchers; assess communication barriers and explore communication interventions that can be put in place to improve utilization of climate- smart agricultural technologies among farmers in West Pokot County. This study is grounded on the diffusion of innovation theory, technology acceptance model, and knowledge-based theory. The study employed a pragmatism mixed method approach; where both quantitative and qualitative approaches were utilized sequentially. 494 farmers were sampled for quantitative data while 29 key informants were sampled for qualitative data. Quantitative data was collected by use of questionnaires while qualitative data was collected through conducting interviews. ANOVA analysis showed significance, an implication of the linear relationship between the utilization of climate- smart agricultural technologies (UCAT) and the independent variables. An analysis of the coefficients revealed that on regression, the variables were significant (p<0.05) except interventions of communication (p>0.05). From qualitative data, it was established that language barriers, poor communication techniques, inadequate information centers, and limited numbers of extension officers in the field for face-to-face communication were some of the communication barriers in the field while some of the interventions proposed by the key informants included; improving two-way communication, use of vernacular language in radio stations and increase of face-to-face communication. The study concludes that, while there was an emerging appreciation of climate-smart agriculture and the need for its adoption by West Pokot farmers, their adoption was mainly constrained by poor means of communication such as language barrier and technical terms used by scientists to communicate to farmers. The study therefore recommends agricultural communication agents should package their messages in a local language frequently used and understood by farmers in West Pokot County. Climate Smart Technologies published in English should be translated into local vernacular language, further information can be passed through local radio stations that speak local language that can easily be understood by the farmers. Different approaches of communication and extension are proposed as flagship models that can be implemented through agricultural research institutions, private extension partners, and in some cases, through a partnership with local awareness creation organizations.