| dc.description.abstract | The primary aim of this study was to identify the underlying factors that affect farmer groups to improve their performance and the market situation. Specifically, the study aim to examine the extent to which certain group characteristics and asset endowments facilitate collective action initiatives to improve group marketing performance in cereal sector. This study was investigating the effectiveness of farmer groups and its influence on cereal market in lmenti north district. The study sought to determine factors such as leadership, physical location, group composition, group assets that influence effectiveness of the groups in the cereal sector.
The study was be descriptive in nature and employed both quantitative and qualitative to the data analysis. The study also looked at the challenges facing farmer groups with a view suggesting recommendations for future development. In order to achieve good result, instruments used included questionnaires and interviews. The research instruments were developed to measure particular variables against each objective, and then the data was collected. The study respondents were farmers from selected groups, traders, millers and ministry of agriculture officials from lmenti North.
The data collection, analysis and interpretation, enabled the understanding of farmer groups and their real issues. There is a strong correlation between the leadership and the group effectiveness as good leadership led to higher profit margins and large sales due to available market information as depicted by a positive 0.695 coefficient. Physical location, group composition and group assets shows positive correlation indicating that they influence the performance of the group.
The research recommends that farmers themselves must form and participate in strong, local marketing associations in order to receive a fairer value for their produce. By organizing, farmers can access information needed to produce. add value, market their commodities and develop effective linkages with input agencies such as financial service providers, as well as output markets. | en_US |
