An Assessment of Hydroponics Farming Technology in Urban and Peri-urban Areas of Nairobi City, Kenya

Abstract

Although conventional crop farming has been the dominant urban and peri-urban agricultural practice in most sub-Saharan African cities, it faces several challenges hindering its potential to generate both economic and environmental benefits to urban residents. These challenges include limited farmlands, high costs of renting off-plots for farming, insecure land tenure, and pollution of field crops, among others. One of the solutions for the aforementioned challenges is hydroponics farming technology, a soilless production of clean, green and gourmet crops in limited urban spaces throughout the year. However, in urban and peri-urban areas of Nairobi city, little is known about nature of hydroponics farming, especially production processes, the role of non-state organizations in promoting hydroponics farming, and its economic and environmental benefits and constraints. This study focused on four objectives, namely, 1) the nature of hydroponics farming; 2) the role of non-state organizations in promoting hydroponics farming; 3) the economic and environmental benefits of hydroponics farming; and 4) the constraints of hydroponics farming – in urban and peri-urban areas of Nairobi. Since the uptake of hydroponics farming technology is still low in Nairobi, the study applied Actor-Network Theory and an exploratory study of hydroponics farmers to understand adoption and practice of hydroponics farming in the study area. The study sampled 40 hydroponics farmers using proportionate stratified random sampling. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews and field observations to gain more insights on hydroponics farming technology in the urban and peri-urban areas of Nairobi. Quantitative aspects of the data were analyzed using frequency distributions and cross-tabulations, while the qualitative aspects were subjected to content analysis. The study had one hypothesis: “There is no difference between the type of hydroponics farming technique and income from sale of farm produce”. This was analyzed using chi-square test. The study findings indicate that hydroponics farming is technologically intensive with 55% of farmers noting high start-up capital. It is mostly undertaken by more males (62.5%) against women (37.5%), all with secondary education and above. Additionally, there are various hydroponics farming techniques meant for different types of crops, and as such, require varying types of inputs and installation. A number of non-state organizations provided information and training to 88.5% of farmers, setting up hydroponics farms for 75%, and spearheading farmers’ access to startup costs, inputs and market for 47.5% of the sampled farmers...