| dc.description.abstract | A survey was conducted to determine the effect of the socio-economic and institutional factors on
farmers’ adoption of Bambara nut as food security crop. Purposive survey research design was
used to generate both qualitative and quantitative data. 384 respondents were interviewed in the
study. Proportionate sampling technique was used to select 131, respondents from Kakamega
North Sub- county, 127 from Butere and 94 from Matungu and 32 respondents from Mumias subcounties based on population. Primary data was collected through structured questionnaire,
interview schedules alongside focused group discussion. Findings indicated that that seven
variables were statistically significant and contributed to adoption. These factors include: subcounty
of farmer’s residence, gender, farm size, on-farm income, labor, member of social group, marketing problems, access to extension services and respondents’ access to credit. Four other factors (age, level of education marketing and credit) were not significant. Chi-square test showed
that the estimated model fitted the data reasonably well and indeed the variables were jointly
significant in explaining adoption of Bambara production and utilization in Kakamega County. In
order for smallholder farmers to benefit from neglected food crops there is need for stakeholders to
contribute towards formulating relevant policies and impliment research programmes that will
promote and commercialize amongst others Bambara amongst smallholder farmers. This would
lead to increased smallscale growing of Bambara nut and thus contribute to ensuring food security
at household level among resource poor farmerss in Kakamega Count of Kenya. | en_US |
