| dc.description.abstract | This thesis is concerned with the formation and operation of grading and packing stations of the Horticultural Crops Development Authority, the parastatal body involved in developing horticulture in Kenya.
There are three stations under consideration, namely, Machakos, Karatina and Yatta. Machakos station operated for a period of 16 months and closed down due to prohibitive losses and lack of produce arising from its inability to withstand competition from private traders. Karatina and Yatta are still in operation, but they have yet to prove fully viable entities, particularly Yatta.
The grading and packing stations provide alternative market channels for the horticultural
produce of the growers. There are many aspects under consideration; namely, the crops available and acreages allocated to them in the stations' catchment areas; the underlying factors in the choice of the crops and acreage allocation; constraints in production of high quality products; the factors affecting farmers' decisions when selecting sales outlets; competition between stations and private traders; the economic efficiency of the grading stations and, finally, an assessment of the extent to which the objectives of the stations have been achieved.
It was observed that horticultural production , is market-oriented to a reasonable extent in each catchment area. The availability of assured markets for the growers' produce was found to be the major determinant of horticultural output. The stations handle high quality products but they do not offer the necessary farm inputs to improve the quality and quantity of produce. Nor do they ensure that they can handle anything like the full range of horticultural crops and maintain continuity of supply throughout the year.
Failure to provide farm inputs has generally speaking led to low quality produce and
consequently confined such produce to low grade denomination. In their selection of sales outputs, growers considered the availability of assured markets as the most important factor. Stations were assured markets, and had their suppliers and non-suppliers. The non-suppliers in addition considered other factors, mainly, prices, quality
of the produce and credit availability. The private traders overcame the Machakos
station with relative ease in spite of the financial and personnel resources of HCDA. These traders offered credit to farmers, entered into contracts with them, and at least temporarily raised their prices above the station prices to attract the
growers away from the station.
Grading was not new to growers in Mbooni location (one of the Machakos station catchment areas) as it was practised by traders long before the establishment of the station. Traders at Karatina and Yatta, however, did not compete as strongly as Machakos traders against the stations.
The findings on the economic efficiencies of the two operational stations, namely, Karatina andYatta, revealed that the stations operated far below their capacities and thus incurred unnecessarily high operating costs per unit, about half of which were for transportation.
The stations' objectives have been partially achieved. Recommendations including the
strengthening of the station-farmer relationship, are submitted. | en |
