IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaae18/277357.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is Agricultural Extension a Determinant of Farm Diversification - Evidence from Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Mwololo, H.
  • Nzuma, J.
  • Ritho, C.

Abstract

Farm diversification is a common coping strategy among smallholder farmers, especially in the developing countries. As a result, understanding the determinants of farm diversity is paramount. Access to extension has been found to be an important determinant of farm diversity through the technology adoption pathway. Despite farmers access to several extension services, no evidence exists on the effect of different extension services on farm diversity. This study evaluates the effect of extension services on farm diversity in Kenya. It uses a truncated Poisson model on a sample of 743 households who were selected using a multi stage sampling technique. The findings show that there are significant differences between the least and the most diversified farms. Furthermore, access to government, private and NGO extension services, alongside farmer demographic characteristics, increases farm diversity. This study therefore recommends for hiring, training and facilitating extension officers. In addition, the different extension services should be used as compliments and targeted to where their impact is highest. Acknowledgement : This research was financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) based on the decision of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany (grant number 2813FSNu01).

Suggested Citation

  • Mwololo, H. & Nzuma, J. & Ritho, C., 2018. "Is Agricultural Extension a Determinant of Farm Diversification - Evidence from Kenya," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277357, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae18:277357
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.277357
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/277357/files/1790.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.277357?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alessandro Romeo & Janice Meerman & Mulat Demeke & Antonio Scognamillo & Solomon Asfaw, 2016. "Linking farm diversification to household diet diversification: evidence from a sample of Kenyan ultra-poor farmers," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(6), pages 1069-1085, December.
    2. Sichoongwe, Kiru & Mapemba, Lawrence & Ng'ong'ola, Davies & Tembo, Gelson, 2014. "The determinants and extent of crop diversification among smallholder farmers: A case study of Southern Province, Zambia," MaSSP working papers 5, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Yusuf OB & Bello T & Gureje O, 2017. "Zero Inflated Poisson and Zero Inflated Negative Binomial Models with Application to Number of Falls in the Elderly," Biostatistics and Biometrics Open Access Journal, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 1(4), pages 69-75, May.
    4. Michael R. Rahm & Wallace E. Huffman, 1984. "The Adoption of Reduced Tillage: The Role of Human Capital and Other Variables," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 66(4), pages 405-413.
    5. Winkelmann, Rainer & Zimmermann, Klaus F, 1995. "Recent Developments in Count Data Modelling: Theory and Application," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, March.
    6. Batz, F. -J. & Peters, K. J. & Janssen, W., 1999. "The influence of technology characteristics on the rate and speed of adoption," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 121-130, October.
    7. McNamara, Kevin T. & Weiss, Christoph, 2005. "Farm Household Income and On- and Off-Farm Diversification," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 37-48, April.
    8. F.‐J. Batz & K.J. Peters & W. Janssen, 1999. "The influence of technology characteristics on the rate and speed of adoption," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 21(2), pages 121-130, October.
    9. Jones, Andrew D. & Shrinivas, Aditya & Bezner-Kerr, Rachel, 2014. "Farm production diversity is associated with greater household dietary diversity in Malawi: Findings from nationally representative data," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-12.
    10. Sichoongwe, Kiru, 2014. "Determinants and Extent of Crop Diversification Among Smallholder Farmers in Southern Zambia," Research Theses 243456, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    11. repec:ags:cmpart:198521 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Greene, William, 2008. "Functional forms for the negative binomial model for count data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 585-590, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barrera, Victor & Norton, George W. & Alwang, Jeffrey Roger & Mauceri, Maria, 2005. "Adoption of Integrated Pest Management Technologies: A Case Study of Potato Farmers in Carchi, Ecuador," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19400, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    2. Orkhan Sariyev & Tim K. Loos & Ling Yee Khor, 2021. "Intra-household decision-making, production diversity, and dietary quality: a panel data analysis of Ethiopian rural households," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(1), pages 181-197, February.
    3. Saenz, Mariana & Thompson, Eric, 2017. "Gender and Policy Roles in Farm Household Diversification in Zambia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 152-169.
    4. Odjuvwuederhie Emmanuel Inoni & Bayero Sule Gani & Elizabeth Sabo, 2021. "Drivers of Crop Diversification: Evidence from Smallholder Farmers in Delta State Nigeria," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 69(1), pages 59-70.
    5. Hayatullah Ahmadzai, 2017. "Status, patterns, and microeconomic drivers of the extent of diversity in crop production: Evidence from Afghanistan," Discussion Papers 2017-07, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    6. Virginia Vallejo-Rojas & Marta G. Rivera-Ferre & Federica Ravera, 2022. "The agri-food system (re)configuration: the case study of an agroecological network in the Ecuadorian Andes," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(4), pages 1301-1327, December.
    7. Sidibe, Amadou, 2005. "Farm-level adoption of soil and water conservation techniques in northern Burkina Faso," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 211-224, February.
    8. Margarita Genius & Christos Pantzios & Vangelis Tzouvelekas, 2003. "Information Acquisition and Adoption of Organic Farming Practices: Evidence from Farm Operations in Crete, Greece," Working Papers 0305, University of Crete, Department of Economics.
    9. Tesfaye, Wondimagegn & Tirivayi, Nyasha, 2020. "Crop diversity, household welfare and consumption smoothing under risk: Evidence from rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    10. Sékou Amadou Traoré & Christoph Reiber & Bekele Megersa & Anne Valle Zárate, 2018. "Contribution of cattle of different breeds to household food security in southern Mali," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(3), pages 549-560, June.
    11. Wongnaa, Camillus Abawiera & Kyei, Afrane Baffour & Apike, Isaac Akurugu & Awunyo-Vitor, Dadson & Dziwornu, Raymond K., 2021. "Perception and Adoption of Artificial Pollination Technology in Cocoa Production: Evidence from Ghana," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 314939, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. OBISESAN, Adekemi & AWOLALA, David, 2021. "Crop Diversification, Productivity And Dietary Diversity: A Gender Perspective," Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics (RAAE), Faculty of Economics and Management, Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra, vol. 24(1), March.
    13. Thottappilly, Anna, 2021. "Identifying the Income Effect on Nutrition for Agricultural Households: Separability of Production and Consumption," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315335, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Wubeneh, Nega Gebreselassie & Sanders, J.H., 2006. "Farm-level adoption of sorghum technologies in Tigray, Ethiopia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 91(1-2), pages 122-134, November.
    15. Eric O. Verger & Cédric Gaillard & Andrew D. Jones & Roseline Remans & Gina Kennedy, 2021. "Construction and Interpretation of Production and Market Metrics Used to Understand Relationships with Dietary Diversity of Rural Smallholder Farming Households," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-21, August.
    16. Ismail Moumouni & Mohamed N. Baco & Latifou Idrissou, 2019. "Towards a Re-Conceptualization of the Pathway of Agricultural Technology for a Better Impact Assessment," International Journal of Publication and Social Studies, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(2), pages 123-131, June.
    17. Riithi, Alexander Njuguna & Irungu, Patrick & Munei , Kimpei, 2015. "Determinants Of Choice Of Alternative Livelihood Diversification Strategies In Solio Resettlement Scheme, Kenya," Dissertations and Theses 269714, University of Nairobi, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    18. Ya-na Wang & Lifu Jin & Hanping Mao, 2019. "Farmer Cooperatives’ Intention to Adopt Agricultural Information Technology—Mediating Effects of Attitude," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 565-580, June.
    19. Masoud Yazdanpanah & Kurt Klein & Tahereh Zobeidi & Stefan Sieber & Katharina Löhr, 2022. "Why Have Economic Incentives Failed to Convince Farmers to Adopt Drip Irrigation in Southwestern Iran?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-15, February.
    20. Lybbert, Travis J., 2005. "Indian Farmers' Valuation of Crop Yield Distributions: Will poor farmers value 'pro-poor' seeds?," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19160, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:iaae18:277357. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.