Assessment of the Factors Affecting Farmers’ Involvement in Environmental Conservation in Gatundu North Sub-county, Kiambu County
Abstract
Farming, being an agricultural activity that utilizes water, soil, and air, can expose the
environment to destruction. Farmers can therefore embrace practices that effectively
conserve the environment. This study was aimed at establishing factors that affect
farmers’ involvement in environmental conservation in Gatundu North Sub County. A
number of variables were analyzed during the study including: knowledge and
awareness level; access to information; community participation; utilization of
technology; socioeconomic and political factors. The study adopted a descriptive
cross sectional design. Stratified random sampling was employed to select a sample
population of 384 farmers drawn from 4 wards of Gatundu North (strata), namely-
Mang'u, Chania, Githobokoni, and Gituamba. Data was collected by administration of
semi-structured questionnaires to the sample population. All data was recorded in
Microsoft Excel sheets and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS).The following statistical techniques were applied: regression,
standard deviation, mean, sample size determination and hypothesis testing.
The study findings indicate that 53% of the farmers were aware of environmental
conservation. The findings also indicated that technology had significant effect on the
involvement of farmers in environmental conservation(p=0.0002).Empirical results
from a multiple regression model revealed that gender, marital status, level of
education, training, extension services and land ownership are significant predictors
of involvement in environmental conservation. Correlation between farmers’
perception and adoption of agro-environmental conservation practices are; pvalue=
0.043 and r-value=0.277. Technology and involvement in Environmental
Conservation ranged between 0.000-1.000 in the correlation analysis. This study thus
recommends that conservation practices of natural resources would be most effective
when understood by individual farmers, so that analysis of farmers’ attitude would
have paramount importance, not only in controlling potential conflicts but also in
examining policy efficiencies.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Subject
Environmental ConservationRights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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