| dc.description.abstract | Credit farm input has been provided by several firms to support small scale farmers by
giving them subsidies which reduce their cost of production and in turn increase their farm
yields. Most small scale farmers aren’t able to access inputs which affects farm
productivity because farmers facing binding capital constraints use lower levels of inputs
in their production activities. The study was aimed to examine the influence of credit farm
inputs on improvement of small scale farmers’ output in Bungoma County. The objectives
of the study were to determine the extent to which provision of seeds on credit influence
improvement of small scale farmers’ output in Bungoma county, to determine how
provision of fertilizer on credit influence improvement of small scale farmers’ output in
Bungoma County, to investigate how provision of Agro-chemicals on credit influences
improvement of farmers’ output in Bungoma County and lastly the study examined how
provision of training to farmers on utilization of new farming methods by credit providers
influence improvement of small scale farmers’ output in Bungoma County. The target
population for this study was 2,505 individuals consisting of 2,500 small scale farmers in
Bungoma County and 5 senior staff from farm input credit firms. The study used
descriptive research design, questionnaires were used to collect data which adopted both
quantitative and qualitative approaches. Systematic sampling procedure was used to gather
data from 100 small scale maize and beans farmers in Bungoma south. Purposive
sampling was used to select 5 senior staff from input credit firms to be interviewed. Data
was analyzed using SPSS, descriptive and inferential statistics which included correlation.
It was found that majority of small scale farmers, (62.33) % owned small sizes of land
between 0.5 and 1 acre and produced maximum, those that had larger land sizes did not
use the optimal recommended level of inputs since they couldn’t access enough inputs and
this influenced their yields negatively. It was concluded that the use of seed and fertilizer
coupled with provision of training gave moderate production of between 12-19 bags of
maize of 90 kg, per acre. Majority of the respondents (62.00) % received agro-chemicals
used for storage purposes only, therefore the study shows that agro-chemical provision on
credit did not have an influence on farmer output. Recommendations for further research
were first, factors that influence small scale farmer productivity apart from farm input
credit and factors influencing accessibility of farm input credit by small scale farmers. | en_US |
