| dc.description.abstract | Kenya’s approach to food security combines longer-term action to enhance productive
potential and incomes, with programs and policies that respond to immediate needs of the
poor and food insecure. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors
influencing food security in a case of One Acre Fund in Bungoma South District,
Bungoma County. The objectives of this study were; to determine how farmers’
demographic characteristics influence food security, to investigate how farming methods
influence food security, to establish how poverty influences food security and to examine
how population Size influences food security in Bungoma South District. The study
adopted the descriptive survey research design on how the interventions had boosted food
security. The target population was 1700 farmers and 20 One Acre Fund staffs who
include One Acre Fund extension workers in the livestock sector, metrological sector,
soils department; local government department and a co-member from Kenya
Agricultural Research Institute hence a total of 1720 . The sample for this study was 170.
The sampling technique used was stratified and simple random sampling where farmers
were grouped into sub-locations and randomly selected. The research instrument that was
used in this study for data collection was the questionnaire and interview schedule. A
pilot study was done in two sub-locations in Bumula sub-county to clarify the research
instruments and avoid contamination of results. Validity of research instruments was
achieved at piloting stage and also through expert judgments by the study supervisors. In
order to ensure reliability of the instrument, the split-half technique was used by applying
the Spearman’s Brown Prophecy Formula to calculate the reliability coefficient where a
coefficient correlation of 0.6 was found and deemed adequate for the study. Frequency
tables and percentages were used to analyse the quantitative data. Such information was
useful to stakeholders and the government in designing customized and more effective
strategies or interventions to the food security besides forming a basis for further research
.Findings showed that the low productivity of subsistence agriculture is largely a result of
poor access to productive resources and improved inputs. The productivity can be
improved by increasing access to household assets such as land, water and human capital,
and by encouraging farmers to intensify production through the use of improved inputs.
This includes the use of fertilizer, organic inputs and conservation investments. It was
also found that Farmers’ demographic characteristic affects food security. Agricultural
extension could be one tool in attaining the millennium development goal related to the
reduction of extreme poverty and hunger in developing countries like Kenya and could
improve food security. The researcher recommended that the Government of Kenya to
have policy interventions that target access to resources such as land, technology, credit
and training; promotion of irrigation and rainwater harnessing technologies; improving
access to credit by the poor, including women; improving access to food production and
food processing technologies, particularly technologies for women. It is also
recommended that the Government of Kenya to formulate and implement policies that
enhance the ownership and exchange entitlement of the poor in the trade of agriculture
and food sectors; and improve household food security by commercializing agriculture
to increase income and employment generation among food-insecure households. It is
recommended that the Government should come up with strategies for opportunities to
improve market and trade information, including the use of mobile phones, short message
so as farmers can use it to improve productivity in farming | en_US |
