Effects Of Climate Variability On Maize Production In Kenya

Abstract

Agriculture is the mainstay of many Kenyans. Over 50 percent of farmers in Kenya produce maize crop for both subsistence and commercial purposes. Currently, maize crop production is declining which has led to a deficit of Kenya’s staple food. Despite evidence that a decline in maize production is partly attributed to variability in climate, these revelations in the Kenyan case is still scarce. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the effects of climate change on maize production in Kenya and how such effects differ across regions. A production function approach as modified by Ochieng et al. (2016) was adopted to determine the effect of climate change on maize productivity in Kenya. System Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM), Fixed and Random effects model as well as Pooled Ordinary Least Squares were applied on a three-year data set (2004, 2007, and 2010) from the Tegemeo Institute. It was found that first, climate variability, in temperature negatively affected maize production in Kenya. The results also show that maize farmers in the Coastal, Eastern, Nyanza, and Rift Valley Provinces produce more maize as compared to those from Central province. The econometric results also indicate that increases in agricultural assets owned by households, age of the head of the household and household size increases maize production. Further, male-headed households were able to produce more maize in comparison to female-headed households. The results further established that household maize production reduced with acreage devoted to maize production. From these findings, it is suggested that households in Kenya should undertake various adaptation strategies to cushion themselves from the negative impacts associated with variation of climate in order to improve maize yields. Further, the Kenyan government should also adopt policy interventions that can reduce effects of global warming.