| dc.description.abstract | Poverty reduction among smallholders has remained a major priority for the Kenyan government. In Kenya the connection between small scale tea farmers and the level of poverty in the area of study is not well understood and that's what the study sets to find out. Poverty is relative deprivation, and about 15 million Kenyans are deprived with about 7.5 % of them living in extreme poverty and 80% of them of them live in rural areas. According to UNDP the average per capita income for Kenyans is US $ 360.The country is ranked 148 among 177 countries in the UNDP human development index which measures a country's development.
The major challenge facing Kenya government today is how to alleviate poverty especially in rural areas. Causes of rural poverty include the nature of activities that people in these regions rely on to generate income, because in most areas, the main activity is rain-fed agriculture. In the area under study tea farming is the main economic activity and a source of livelihood. This study intended to establish the of tea farming on poverty levels in Abothuguchi West Division, Meru Central District in Kenya. The study sought to investigate the influence of the levels of poverty and also looked at the objectives such as in the market forces, cost of production and gender issues as some of the factors that influence the levels of poverty in the area under study.
The study design selected was survey design and simple random sampling was used to select the respondents among tea farmers. Questionnaires and interview schedules were the main data collection instruments. The collected data was then analyzed using frequencies, percentages, averages and ratios. Statistical Package Social Science (SPSS) version was used to analyze data. The tea industry in Kenya points to the rising cost of production and in particular the high cost of labour as one of their key challenges. Fluctuating global market prices have negatively impacted smallholder tea farmers. Other challenges that were noted by the farmers included serious climatic changes that had decreased tea production, dilapidated infrastructure which causes an increase in costs of production including transportation and unreliable energy supplies and its subsequent high costs.
The smallholder industry has also highlighted the rising cost of production, which is high compared to many other tea producing countries. The main factors contributing to the high cost of production are the high cost of labour, high costs of farm inputs, particularly fertilizers, the high costs of energy/fuel at the factories, high costs of transport due to poor road and rail transport system and numerous taxes and levies. The government should create conducive climate for sustainable development of the tea sector, especially through incentives and subsidies to actors with a weak bargaining position in the market structure.
The government should enforce the labour legislation to ensure that actualization of labour is halted. Even though tea farming has given some farmers income, it has not led to a structural change in the region's economy. Farmers should be educated to diversify their economic activities so that they reinvest into more productive farming methods or find alternative forms of employment. The researcher also recommends a study to assess factors influencing tea income on small scale farmers in the area under study. | en_US |
