Tropentag, September 11 - 13, 2024, Vienna "Explore opportunities... for managing natural resources and a better life for all"

Social perception of smallholder farmers on the uptake of organic fertilisers in Kigumo subcounty

¹Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Dept. of Horticulture and Food Safety, Kenya
²Leibniz Centre for Agric. Landscape Res. (ZALF), Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries (SusLAND), Germany

Abstract

Declining soil fertility is a serious problem across sub-Saharan Africa, and a persistent constraint to agricultural production especially in low potential areas, thus posing a major threat to food security and rural livelihoods. The organic fertiliser (OF) has a huge potential impact on reversing the deteriorating soil fertility and improving soil health. The adoption of organic fertilisers has been low due to overreliance on synthetic fertilisers. This study was done to analyse social perception of smallholder farmers on the uptake of OF for crop production. The survey was conducted in Kigumo-Muranga county in Kenya. A sample of 100 smallholder farmers in a survey, was presented with 20 statements divided in four sections and ranked them on a likert scale of 5. Collected data was analysed using SPSS. On cost of, the likert scale weighted mean was 4.08 which was more positive with an average standard deviation (SD) of 0.6593. This showed that the cost of organic fertiliser strongly influences its uptake by smallholder farmers. On the crop produced with OF, the weighted mean -3.98 and SD -0.7527, which showed that the farmers perceived the crop produced with OF as of high quality and safe for consumption which greatly influences the uptake of organic fertilisers. On OF Impact on Environment, the mean was 3.805 and SD - 0.8225, which showed that it has less influence on farmers’ adoption OF. On Credit /Political Good-Will, the mean was 3.37 and the SD was 0.92433, which revealed that credit and the political good-will does not greatly influence the uptake of by smallholder farmers. These results revealed that the agroecology policy in Murang’a county is not yet known and the county budget in place to support the policy is not effective. The smallholder farmers perceive cost and quality of produced from crop grown with OF as the biggest contributing factors for its adoption. It is suggested that sensitizing on Murang’a Agroecology Policy through effective media at a county level will promote uptake of OF by smallholder farmers. Meanwhile,allocating more financial assistance and subsidy on organic fertilisers will greatly promote its adoption.

Keywords: Kigumo subcounty, organic fertiliser (commercial and homemade), smallholder farmers, social perception

Contact Address: Goetz Uckert, Leibniz Centre for Agric. Landscape Res. (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany, e-mail: Goetz.uckertzalf.de