Determinants of Market Participation by Smallholder Soybean Farmers in Kakamega County, Kenya”

Abstract

Production of soybean in Kenya has remained low despite the crop’s importance in nutrition, feed manufacturing and soil fertility management. Inefficiencies in marketing have been established as the major challenge to increasing soybean production in Kenya. In order to understand the determinants of market participation by smallholder soybean farmers, a double hurdle model was applied to analyze primary survey data from 148 farmers in Kakamega County, Kenya. Use of inoculants, quantity of seed planted, fertilizer, and access to credit positively affected probability of selling soybean. Extent of soybean market participation was positively influenced by use of fertilizer, quantity of seed planted, quantity of soybean harvested, access to extension, and output price. These findings demonstrate the need for institutional support in access to extension services and productivity-enhancing technologies such as use of inoculants, improved seed, and fertilizer and establishing market guarantee between soybean farmers and processors to encourage market participation.