Factors influencing smallholder farmers' participation in domestic high value markets for African Indigenous Vegetables in rural Kenya

Abstract

Participation in high value markets holds potential for raising smallholder farmers’ income and reducing poverty in the rural areas. Despite a growing literature on farmers’ participation in supermarkets, there is no documented analysis of smallholder African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs) farmers’ involvement in other emerging high value domestic markets such as hospitals, schools and hotels. In order to address this critical knowledge gap, this study examined the factors that influence smallholder AIV farmers’ participation in such markets in rural Kenya. Results showed that the traditional marketing system is still dominated by less than 13% of farmers selling their vegetables in high value markets. The results of the logit model show that the years of formal education, household income, price, quantity of output and access to credit had significant positive influence on smallholder farmers’ participation in high value markets particularly hotels, hospitals and schools. These findings necessitate urgent policy interventions targeting investments on; access to quality farm information and skills, non-restricted credit especially from group-based informal member schemes, production methods and inputs and timely price information.