Rural transportation problems: a case study of tea roads in the southern teagrowing region of Meru-Kenya
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Date
2003Author
Miriti,Bundi, Jeremy
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Rural transportation problems in the tea areas emanate from
the poor conditions of tea roads which are not maintained to
be all weather. Most of these roads are impassable during the rainy
seasons and tea farmers incur heavy green leaf losses.
The objective of this study is to identify some of the causes
of the rural transportation problems and tea losses, describe them
and propose the way forward in reduction of the tea farmers
losses.
A comprehensive literature review is attempted in this study with a
purpose of extracting relevant and essential information from
available secondary sources.
There are three hypothesis formulated and their validity tested
using primary and secondary data collected. These are;
(a) There is no significant relationship between the closure of
buying centers and tea losses.
(b) There is no significant relationship between poor road
conditions and tea losses.
(c) There is no significant relationship between the distance of
tea buying centers from the factories and leaf losses.
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Qualitative and quantitative analysis are used in this study to
establish the significance of the relationships and test the
hypothesis to enable conclusions to be drawn.
The major finding of the case study was that poor road conditions
is the main cause of rural transportation problems and tea losses in
general. Tea roads should be well maintained to eliminate losses.
The study recommends that all key players in the tea industry
and precisely KTDA as the small-holder tea Managing Agency
has a duty to ensure that the tea roads are well maintained in order
to reduce rural transportation problems and tea losses.
Sponsorhip
The University of NairobiPublisher
Transport Geography