Factors Influencing Agricultural Productivity in Kenya: a Case of Nyathuna Ward in Kabete Sub-county, Kiambu County

Abstract

Farmers should be taught and be exposed to current researched and updated agricultural technologies at their disposal. Fundamentally, farmers to achieve certain goals use current and updated information but what is missing is how to package and spread the much-needed information to them. To mitigate this, agricultural stakeholders and other related agencies in Kenya should consider the best communication channels to use in the spreading of the much-needed valuable agricultural information to farmers. The dissemination of agricultural information has continued to be imbalanced; this has put the achieving of full productivity levels of our rural population into jeopardy in as far as general development is concerned. Target audience segmentation based on literacy levels, unique needs, specific land needs should be considered by the producers of agricultural information; and opening up of media and vernacular communication of messages should be targeted and enhanced. The objectives of the study are to; establish social-economic factors influencing agricultural productivity, examine the influence of agricultural technology uptake on productivity, establish the influence of extension service delivery on agricultural productivity and assess the influence of information dissemination methods used for agricultural productivity. The research has adopted a descriptive survey research design in order to establish factors influencing agricultural productivity in Kenya. 200 respondents were the sample size that was selected from a list of 7794 farmers in Nyathuna Ward Kabete Sub-County. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the respondents. The analysis of data collected was done by the use of descriptive statistical methods and inferential analysis using statistical package for social sciences and multiple correlation analysis and presented in Tables. Analyzed data show that there is a positive correlation of 0.169 between extension service delivery and agricultural productivity. There is a positive correlation of 0.117 between farmers‟ training methods and agricultural productivity. There is a positive correlation of 0.155 between the methods used for the dissemination of agricultural information and agricultural productivity. Social economic factors can influence agricultural productivity negatively or positively. From the findings combination of both family and hired labour is used heavily when conducting all farm activities meaning that if family labour is removed from the equation, the cost of production will go up. Technology in agriculture should be embraced and encouraged. The use of fully tested and recommended inputs is a sure way to go since this gives a farmer quality and better yields. Extension service delivery should be enhanced and strengthened. Farm Visits was the farmers‟ preferred training method hence this should be factored in. In the section of the dissemination of agricultural messages, Participatory Approach method is the most preferred by the farmers. The findings may provide very valuable information to the Government of Kenya officers, related agricultural agencies, researchers and other stakeholders. Formulation of policies by the Government of Kenya may be done by the use of the findings therein; so that positive impacts to the farmers are realized as far as agricultural productivity is concerned and guide the agricultural extension officers in coming up with better ways to disseminate agricultural information to farmers in their quest to improve agricultural production.