| dc.identifier | Njeru, Geoffrey R. (2003), Livelihood diversification and entrepreneurship: an analysis of production and marketing innovations in smallholder farming in a rural Kenyan district, Mbeere, Working paper no. 539, Nairobi: Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi | |
| dc.description | In the marginal arid and semi-arid agro-ecosystems of
Africa, livelihoods largely depend on crop and animal
husbandry, and non-farm employment. For years, farming in
such areas has been compounded by recurrent rain failure,
acute soil erosion, high pest incidences, overgrazing and
poor cultivation methods leading to a serious environmental
hazard. In the last decade or so, the scene has witnessed
the entry of new forces: structural adjustment programmes
(SAPs), with their corresponding currency devaluations and
subsequent rising input costs, liberalisation, privatisation,
globalisation and general institutional decline due to
mismanagement or as part of the conditionalities
accompanying the World Bank's/IMF's structural reform
package.
The consequent withdrawal of the state from its traditional
roles of agricultural marketing, and especially stabilisation of
producer prices and sourcing for external markets,
protectionism and provision of services such as basic inputs
(certified or improved seeds and technology through
research and extension) appear to be putting the African
farmer in a rather precarious position. Further, the lack of
industries to absorb surplus rural labour, the growing
poverty and a rising demand for food and incomes imply
that a greater proportion of the rural population in Kenya
and other parts of Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) is likely to
combine agriculture with non-agricultural activities especially
petty trade, as they continuously undergo a process of deagrarianisation.
On the other hand, market reforms accompanying SAPs
appear to have brought with them profit opportunities,
which some (though few) farmers have seized upon to
increase or stabilise incomes for their households. In
Mbeere, this seems to be taking place in the introduction of
various forms of production and marketing innovations
among smallholder farmers in the areas of fruit and dairy
iii
production. Such farmers appear to be embracing what
appears like entrepreneurial or profit-oriented farming,
though without completely abandoning ordinary or
traditional farming. This form of livelihood diversification in
turn, seems to be having positive implications for income
redistribution, employment creation and poverty reduction.
These production and marketing innovations need to be
studied with a view not only to understanding them better
but also to informing future policy that targets the rural
poor.
This research proposal is divided into six sections. Section
1.0 gives the introductory overview or background of the
study and attempts to define the direction of its thrust with
regard to other recent development research findings and
policy. In Section 2.0, we present the focus of the study and
raise the pertinent questions the research seeks to address.
The third section (3.0) offers a justification and outlines the
objectives of the study. Section 4.0. attempts to locate the
study in the difficult and overcrowded arena of development
theory. Highlights of the physical, economic and agroecological
characteristics of the study area (Mbeere) are
presented in section 5.0. And finally, Section 6.0 explains the
methodology to be used in data collection and analysis. | |
