An analysis of contribution of government agricultural expenditure in promoting agricultural growth in Kenya
Abstract
The main objective of this study is to investigate how changes in disaggregated government
agricultural expenditure has affected agricultural growth rate in Kenya from 1983-2013.
An analysis was carried out to determine how of Agricultural expenditure on: Extension
services, Research & Development, Credit Assistance to farmers, Subsidies to fertilizers and
other variables: Agricultural labourforce, arable land and Average Annual Rainfall impact on
agricultural growth in Kenya. A time series data of 1983-2013 is used in this research paper.
The main findings are that Research & Development expenditure positively and significantly
impacts on Agricultural growth in Kenya. Credit Assistance to farmers and arable land are
also found to positively impact on agricultural output though they are not significant in the
study. Extension Services Expenditure, Spending on fertilizer subsidies, agricultural
labourforce and Average Annual Rainfall are all found to have a negative impact on
agricultural output. Spending on fertilizer subsidies and Average Annual Rainfall are found to
be significant for the study while Extension services expenditure and agricultural labourforce
are found to be insignificant in the study.
An important policy implication of this study is that the government should strengthen the
agricultural Research & Development sector, strategically re-think the fertilizer subsidies
programme and put timely measures of water harvesting into place since all these variables
were found to be significant in the study
Publisher
University of Nairobi