IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/ajaees/357067.html

Effects of Land Fragmentation on Food Security in Three Agro-ecological Zones of Embu County in Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Ndirangu, Samuel Njiri
  • Mbogoh, Stephen G.
  • Mbatia, O. L. E.

Abstract

Land fragmentation is a common agricultural phenomenon in many countries where a single large farm is subdivided into a large number of separate small land plots. This paper is based on a study that was carried out to evaluate the impact of land fragmentation on food security in three agro-ecological zones (AEZs) of Embu County in Kenya from January to November 2016. The study used data collected from 384 farm-households that were randomly selected from three AEZs in the Embu County, using the 4-stage cluster sampling method. The AEZs were the Sunflower-Cotton Zone, the Coffee Zone and the Tea Zone, based on the official AEZs classification system in Kenya. Household caloric acquisition method was used to compute a household food security index (HFSI) that was used to measure the household food security status. The effect of farm size on food security was evaluated using the Binary Logit Regression method. The results showed that the average number of people in a household was 3.73 in the Tea Zone, 3.59 in the Coffee Zone and 3.93 in the Sunflower Zone, and that farm size had a positive and significant effect on food security in the Sunflower (P=.029) and Tea zones (P=.007), but not in the Coffee Zone (P=.365). Further, it was found that the minimum farm-size that could ensure the attainment of the minimum (cut-off) point for household food security (HFSI = 1) was above 2 ha in the Sunflower Zone and 0.5 ha in the Tea Zone. Based on the study findings, it is recommended that further fragmentation of farms below 0.5 ha in the Coffee and Tea zones and 2 ha in the Sunflower Zone should be discouraged to ensure sustainable food security in the study area. For the farms that are already below the minimum cut-off size for food security, measures to increase these farms’ productivities so that they can support more people per ha should be devised and implemented.

Suggested Citation

  • Ndirangu, Samuel Njiri & Mbogoh, Stephen G. & Mbatia, O. L. E., 2017. "Effects of Land Fragmentation on Food Security in Three Agro-ecological Zones of Embu County in Kenya," Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology, Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology, vol. 18(4).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ajaees:357067
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/357067/files/Ndirangu1842017AJAEES34321.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gorton, Matthew & Davidova, Sophia, 2004. "Farm productivity and efficiency in the CEE applicant countries: a synthesis of results," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 1-16, January.
    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. Imori, Denise & Guilhoto, Joaquim José Martins & Postali, Fernando Antonio Slaibe, 2012. "Production efficiency of family farms and business farms in the Brazilian regions," MPRA Paper 46995, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Daniel Solís & Boris E. Bravo‐Ureta & Ricardo E. Quiroga, 2009. "Technical Efficiency among Peasant Farmers Participating in Natural Resource Management Programmes in Central America," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 202-219, February.
    3. Minviel, Jean Joseph & De Witte, Kristof, 2017. "The influence of public subsidies on farm technical efficiency: A robust conditional nonparametric approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(3), pages 1112-1120.
    4. Lancaric, Drahoslav & Tóth, Marián & Savov, Radovan, 2013. "Which legal form of agricultural firm based on return on equity should be preferred? A panel data analysis of Slovak agricultural firms," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 115(3), pages 1-2, December.
    5. Fogarasi, Jozsef & Latruffe, Laure, "undated". "Farm performance and support in Central and Western Europe: a comparison of Hungary and France," 83rd Annual Conference, March 30 - April 1, 2009, Dublin, Ireland 51053, Agricultural Economics Society.
    6. Looga, J. & Jürgenson, E. & Sikk, K. & Matveev, E. & Maasikamäe, S., 2018. "Land fragmentation and other determinants of agricultural farm productivity: The case of Estonia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 285-292.
    7. Lucyna Błażejczyk-Majka & Radosław Kala & Krzysztof Maciejewski, 2012. "Productivity and efficiency of large and small field crop farms and mixed farms of the old and new EU regions," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 58(2), pages 61-71.
    8. repec:rri:wpaper:200803 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Bojnec, Stefan & Latruffe, Laure, 2007. "Farm Size and Efficiency: The Case of Slovenia," 100th Seminar, June 21-23, 2007, Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro 162391, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Eric T. Micheels & Hamish R. Gow, 2015. "The Effect of Market Orientation on Learning, Innovativeness, and Performance in Primary Agriculture," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 63(2), pages 209-233, June.
    11. Veronika Fenyves & Tibor Tarnóczi & Zoltán Bács & Dóra Kerezsi & Péter Bajnai & Mihály Szoboszlai, 2022. "Financial efficiency analysis of Hungarian agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 68(11), pages 413-426.
    12. Manevska-Tasevska, Gordana & Hansson, Helena, "undated". "Influence of rural development policy targets on farm efficiency – An efficiency study of labour intensive grape growing family farms," 2010 IAMO Forum, June 16-18, 2010, Halle (Saale), Germany 90807, Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    13. Ciaian, Pavel & Pokrivcak, Jan & Kancs, d'Artis, "undated". "Empirical Evidence of the Distributional Effects of the CAP in New EU Member States," Working papers 157117, Factor Markets, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    14. Gersch Inka, 2018. "Producer organizations and contract farming: a comparative study of smallholders’ market strategies in South India," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 62(1), pages 14-29, March.
    15. Chen, H., 2018. "Can Crop Insurance Market Benefit Land Rental Market by Mitigating the Inverse-Relationship Concern," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277003, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Fogarasi, Jozsef & Latruffe, Laure, 2007. "Technical efficiency and technology in Eastern and Western agriculture: A comparison of crop and dairy farms in Hungary and France," 104th Seminar, September 5-8, 2007, Budapest, Hungary 7810, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Linxiu Zhang & Weiliang Su & Tor Eriksson & Chengfang Liu, 2016. "How Off-farm Employment Affects Technical Efficiency of China's Farms: The Case of Jiangsu," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 24(3), pages 37-51, May.
    18. Gergő Gyalog & Judit Oláh & Emese Békefi & Mónika Lukácsik & József Popp, 2017. "Constraining Factors in Hungarian Carp Farming: An Econometric Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-13, November.
    19. Gaete, Michael & Herrera, Rodrigo, 2023. "Diversification benefits of commodities in portfolio allocation: A dynamic factor copula approach," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    20. Manevska-Tasevska, Gordana & Hansson, Helena & Asmild, Mette & Surry, Yves, "undated". "Assessing the regional efficiency of Swedish agriculture under the CAP ‒ a multidirectional efficiency approach," 162nd Seminar, April 26-27, 2018, Budapest, Hungary 271971, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    21. Tamara RUDINSKAYA, 2017. "Heterogeneity and efficiency of food processing companies in the Czech Republic," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 63(9), pages 411-420.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    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:ajaees:357067. 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://journalajaees.com/index.php/AJAEES/index .

    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.