| dc.description.abstract | Government has toyed with a variety of interventions ,to promote the implementation of crop production technologies, One such intervention is Common Interest Group approach (CIG) .CIGs are congregations of farmers brought together for the purpose of implementation of agricultural technologies. This study is significant because there was no official documentation of the influence of CIG strategy on implementation of crop production technologies in Nyando district, data generated may be used to develop new policies and extension packages for improving food security.
The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of CIGs strategy on the implementation on of data that could be used to improve food security in the district. Guided by the theory of diffusion of innovations, the study was conducted through ex post facto research design, on a sample of 139 respondents from 70 CIGs out of a target population of 85 in Nyando district, 71 farmers who are not in CIGs 15 opinion leaders through simple random, snowball and purposive sampling techniques for the opinion leaders. Data was collected using interview, questionnaire techniques and focus group discussions in April 2010.
The data collected was collected and analyzed through t-test technique at 5 percent (.05) level of significance to determine whether there was a sufficient difference between the means of implementations of farmers who belong to CIGs and those who did not and presented in tables and figures. The study findings indicated that CIGs had a positive influence on the implementation of crop production technologies and concludes that the CIG strategy have a significant Influence on the implementation of crop production technology among farmers.
Thus CIGs can cause farmers to maintain production records, use certified seeds, use fertilizers and use soil conservation study makes the following recommendations. the ministry of agriculture should modify the CIG methodology to encourage production of food crops to improve food security, the department of Social Services and Cooperatives department to facilitate the CIGs on group development for sustainability, records keeping among farmers be up scale, affordability of fertilizers can be mitigated by development of Cf Gs into viable cooperatives, facilitation of a wider network of certified seeds stockists by the Ministry of Agriculture and other stakeholders at subsidized costs and more awareness be carried out on soil conservation. Suggested area for further study is to determine the actual Influence of CfGs on crop production technologies.
Since the strategy was introduced in 2004, its influence on the implementation of agricultural technologies had not been determined. There was therefore need to determine the influence of ClGs strategy on the implementation of CPT among farmer groups in Nyando District. | en_US |
