| dc.description.abstract | Food insecurity has generally emerged as one of the greatest challenges facing the world community today particularly in developing countries where the population rate is growing at a faster rate than the food production per capita. It clearly emerges that Africa has the potential to feed itself only if governments can focus on innovative strategies by Africans themselves towards achieving sustainable food security. Food insecurity has emerged due to much emphasis being placed on promotion of crops such as maize, wheat, rice and beans with little being done on traditional crops like cassava, sweet potatoes, cow peas among other crops (Strategic Plan of Agriculture 2005-2015; Food Security Report, January 2009).
Yet the traditional crops have, from time immemorial, been a safety net for families during adverse weather conditions due to their tolerance to harsh weather, pests and diseases. This study seeks to reveal the socio-economic factors that influence food security and the adoption of cassava in Wote and Kaiti divisions of Makueni district. The studies broad objective Is to understand the main socio-economic causes and remedy for food insecurity in Makueni district, the specific objectives include; To identify specific socio-economic factors contributing to the frequent occurrence of food insecurity status in Makueni district;
To determine the socio-economic factors that influence the adoption of cassava as the main staple food crop in Makueni district and; To understand the role played by the extension service providers in the process of adoption of cassava as the main staple food crop in Makueni district. It is envisaged that the findings to this study will provide information for government, development agencies, researchers and the community for priority setting, technology targeting and dissemination efforts. | en_US |
