An Assessment of Factors Influencing Smallholder Farmers’ Willingness to Adopt Mushroom Production for Livelihood Diversification in Vihiga County, Kenya

Abstract

Poverty is a critical problem in many parts of the world, especially in the developing countries. This has necessitated policy makers to have a keen interest in seeking ways of improving livelihoods and alleviating poverty. Agriculture remains a key sector for spurring growth, overcoming poverty, and creating employment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa. However, in areas where land acreage is small, it has become difficult to carry out any profitable agricultural production as a means of livelihood sustenance. There is need to identify enterprises that can be incorporated into the farmers’ production processes that are economically viable. There is limited research on the drivers and the extent of willingness of smallholder farmers’ to adopt mushroom production for livelihood diversification in Vihiga County in Western Kenya. Using primary survey data from a sample of 240 smallholder farmers, this study assessed the factors that influence smallholder farmers’ willingness to adopt mushroom production as a livelihood diversification option in Vihiga County. Systematic sampling was used to select the respondents, where every 3rd and 5th household was interviewed in sparsely and densely populated areas, respectively to ensure that each household had an equal opportunity at being interviewed. Densely populated areas were mostly found around shopping centres and near tarmac roads. Descriptive statistics used in data analysis included frequencies, percentages and means and they were presented in graphs and tables. These were employed in the characterization of farmers’ socio-economic profiles. A binomial logit model was applied to assess the factors that influence awareness of mushroom production by the farmers in the study area and their willingness to adopt mushroom production as a livelihood diversification option. Results show that 68.8% of the farmers in the study area were aware of mushroom production and 82.5% of the total respondents were willing to engage in mushroom production as a livelihood diversification option. From the logit analysis, the main factors that were found to have a significant positive influence on farmers’ willingness to engage in mushroom production were age, gender, consumption of mushroom and total land size in acres per household. Based on the results, it is recommended that the stakeholders in the agricultural sector in the study area begin awareness campaigns of mushroom production as a livelihood diversification option for smallholder farmers in the region. It is also recommended that mushroom production be included in the County’s agricultural strategy. A training strategy on mushroom production could be enhanced by encouraging the farmers to be members of development groups. This is because the development groups are the main channel for information access on new agricultural production practices in the study area. The Agricultural Sector Development Support Programme (ASDSP) in the study area should allocate more funds for awareness campaigns and trainings to ensure that the farmers in the area have knowledge on mushroom production as a livelihood diversification option. Key words: Poverty, Land, Livelihood Diversification