Using research findings to formulate extension tools that incorporate stakeholders' aspirations: The case of tea farming in poverty reduction strategies among smallholders in Kenya

Abstract

Kenya's tea research advisory committee (RAC) expressed its desire to tackle poverty and minimum landholding issues to improve the economics of tea farming in Kenya. This paper presents the results of a survey undertaken to address these two factors. The economics of tea farming and the minimum land requirement for economic farming in various factory catchment areas are presented, together with cost-benefit analyses of tea enterprises, their contribution to welfare and the proportions of the landholdings of farmers of varying poverty status. Recommendations for interventions to improve farmers' welfare were examined via the dissemination of the survey findings, which received a positive response from all the stakeholders