Small holder household labour allocation in food production: a case study of Ikolomani Division, Kakamega District.
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Date
1996Author
Mikalitsa, Stellah M
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
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This study was based on Ikolomani Division of Kakamega District in Western Kenya. It deals with a rural part of Kenya where the standards of farming are still low and the majority of the farmers are resource poor. The primary objective of the study set out to identify and analyse the factors that influence the allocation of household labour with special reference to food production. The majority of the farmers rely on household labour and the study attempted to establish the link between labour productivity and a series of socio-economic indices that were regarded as being important in understanding the workings of rural environments.
A total of a hundred farms were sampled for detailed investigations. A systematic sampling strategy was employed to make the selection from all the registered farms in the Division. The methodology used to collect information from each household unit consisted of a written questionnaire which was administered personally by the researcher, in addition an interview of the divisional Agricultural personnel was carried out to help fill in details which could not be obtained from the farms surveyed. The general hypothesis of the study was to test if there was a significant relationship between selected socio-economic factors and household labour allocation particularly for food production. Additional hypotheses were also framed to deal with other factors like farm size, household size, household income, population migration and off farm activities. In order to test the above hypotheses, simple and multiple regression and correlation analysis were used.
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Coefficient of Determination (W) and correlation coefficient (r) were used to test the strength of interrelationship between variables. The resulting data indicated that farm size and household income were major factors influencing household labour allocation and the level of food production. It was further noted that farm size determined the total amount of time spent on the farm and the quantity of labourers hired. However, the number of hired labourers and level of food produced also increased with increasing income. Farm size and household income together explained for 37 percent of the variation in food production. The remaining 63 percent was explained for by other socio-economic factors and physical.
Small holder agriculture highly depended on household labour in the production of agricultural products especially food. There were however, a number of factors which affected the quantity of household labour available for off-farm and on-farm activities. These included migration, marriage and school attendance. These factors had led to increasing use of hired labour in the peak seasons. Hired labour was scarce and costly due to negative attitude of the youth on farm activities. Some factors like migration, family size, age, and off-farm activities were tested but in the final analysis were left out in the regression model because of their insignificant role influencing their dependent variable.
Women were found to be important food producers and farm managers. Their full participation in agricultural development was handicapped by their limited authority in decision making process and their marginalization on ownership of means of production particularly land.
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The present credit system also denied women full acquisition of loans and other credit facilities. This research had important implication to policy planning. There are some households which were seen to have very low literacy levels and poor living standards because of poverty. The study therefore recommends that the government should look into means of improving the education level and vocational training of rural population in order to increase their productivity and efficiency in the production process. This will enable them to raise their income in rural based enterprises especially in agriculture.
It is also recommended that the government look into ways of improving women's access to, and ownership of important means of production especially land and capital. These were seen to be major hindrance to women's full participation in the development process in general and in agricultural production in particular.
Some recommendations have been made to future researchers working in the same area of study. There is need to further examine labour input in agriculture using a production function approach where land and capital are incorporated in the analysis
of labour. This is because labour is just one among many production functions hence cannot be studied in isolation. Future researchers should also work into means of
incorporating children in the analysis of labour input in agriculture. The study left out this aspect of household labour because of limited time and finances.
It has emerged out from the study that apart from sex and age, there were other factors that determined division of labour within the household. Future scholars should try to investigate some factors like education, urbanization and employment with an aim to finding out their role in influencing division of labour in household
Citation
A thesis submitted to the University of Nairobi (Faculty of Arts) in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in Agricultural GeographyPublisher
Department of Arts geography