Non Governmental Organizations’ Interventions Influencing Performance of Agricultural Projects in Kenya : a Case of Webuye West Sub-county, Bungoma County

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of NGO intervention approaches on the performance of agricultural projects in Bungoma county. The specific objectives of the study was to establish the influence of the various NGO interventions of funding, capacity building, market orientation and social campaigns and how these influenced the performance of agricultural projects in Bungoma county. This study was guided by the poverty caused by economic, political, and social distortions or discrimination theory and the culture of poverty theory that argues that poverty is either attributed to the individuals culture and set of belief or the social structure and distortions that hinder and prevent the poor from escaping poverty causing them to sink further into poverty. A descriptive survey research design was applied to establish and describe the association, link, and relationship between NGO's interventions and the performance of agricultural projects. This study targeted 310 small-scale farmers from Webuye West subcounty of Bungoma county and 15 project officers managers affiliated with NGO initiatives and projects. 175 respondents were drawn from the target population of small scale farmers using random sampling techniques and all were interviewed. Survey questionnaires and KIIs were the main data collection tools given that they were easier to administer. Data was cleaned and formatted, and analysis conducted using SPSS version 25 software. The results show that NGO funding interventions negatively influences the performance of agricultural project even though the influence is not significant (α = -0.075, p-value > 0.05). Capacity building initiatives by the NGOs have a positive influence (α = 0.496, p-value <0.05), NGO market orientation interventions also shows a positive influence on the performance of agricultural projects ( α = 0.578, p-value < 0.05), and NGO social campaigns has a significant positive effect on the performance of agricultural projects (α = 0.809, p-value < 0.05) with all positive effects being significant. The study concludes that NGO interventions in agricultural projects influences the performance of these projects. For all interventions, with the exception of funding interventions, the magnitude of the effects are relatively big and significant indicating that in agricultural projects, capacity building, market orientation and social campaigns play a crucial role in the projects based on their cumulative effect on the project outcomes. The study recommends that agricultural project targeting small-scale farmers in rural areas should focus on providing market based interventions, campaigns, and orientations for the farmers with emphasis on skills development and capacity building as these have a positive influence on the outcome of agricultural projects. Policies and guidelines need to be redesigned and aimed at effectively utilizing funding interventions for the benefit of the project by eliminating the negative effects. The focus of the revised policies need to be on the form of funding, the amount of funding, and the frequency of funding when designing financing interventions given their high levels of importance to the farmer within a project setting.