Browsing by Author "Okello, Dickson Otieno"

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Effect of ICT use on performance of Agrienterprises. a case of smallholder pineapple farmers in Kiambu county, Kenya
(Egerton University, 2017-11) Okello, Dickson Otieno
Recently, there has been emergence in the use of modern Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in the different operations of agrienterprises. This ranges from the provision of agricultural information to marketing of agricultural products through the use of ICT tools such as mobile phones, television and radio. Despite the potential of ICT tools to enhance efficiency in agrienterprises operations, little is known about the effect of ICT use on performance and farm income of small scale farmers in rural areas. The aim of this study, therefore, was to examine the effect of ICT use on performance of pineapple agrienterprises. Specifically, it sought to: characterize structure of ICT usage among the smallholder agrientrepreneurs; determine factors influencing use of ICT among smallholder agrientrepreneurs and determine effect of ICT use on income of smallholder agrientrepreneurs. The study was based on data collected from a sample of 183 households drawn from Gatundu North Sub-County in Kiambu County. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select the respondents and semi structured questionnaires employed to collect qualitative and quantitative data through face to face interviews. The determinants of ICT use was estimated by multivariate probit model while the effect of ICT use was estimated using endogenous switching regression model. The results show the most commonly used ICT tool to access agricultural information was mobile phones (86%), radio (79%) and then television (59%). Findings revealed that age, education, household size, farm size, group membership, extension contact, credit access, installation of electricity and attributes of ICT tool significantly influenced the usage of ICT tools. Results suggest that optimal users of ICT tools realized more income per acre than they would have had they not used the ICT tools. While, sub-optimal users realized lower household income per acre than they would have had they not decided to use ICT tools in their agrienterprises. Usage of ICT tools is associated with a 98% and 28% gain in average household income for optimal and sub-optimal users, respectively. Hence use of ICT tools leads to increase in income of smallholder agrienterprises. Consequently policies targeting usage of ICT tools in agrienterprises must consider the age and education level of farmers when developing ICT tools for dissemination of agricultural information and should concentrate on improving the extension services, farmer groups and electricity access to rural areas.
Impact of Agripreneurial Orientations on Resilience and Performance of Dairy Agripreneurs in Murang’a County, Kenya The Mediating Effect Agribusiness Support Services
(Egerton University, 2021-05) Okello, Dickson Otieno
The performance of rural smallholder dairy agrienterprises in Kenya is very critical as it contributes to welfare improvement of rural people especially the youth and women. Despite this acknowledgement, the farm productivity of rural dairy agripreneurs is persistently low. Entrepreneurial orientations and utilization of agribusiness support services have been viewed as a catalyst for improvement of agrienterprises performance. This study sought to determine impact of agripreneurial orientations on resilience and performance of dairy agripreneurs in Murang’a County, Kenya. The specific objectives were to determine; dairy agripreneurs’ preferences for production, animal health and marketing support services, factors influencing the usage of Agribusiness Support Services (ASS), effect of agripreneurial orientation mediated by ASS and effect of ASS on performance of smallholder dairy agripreneurs in Murang’a County. A multistage sampling method was used to select a sample of 682 dairy agripreneurs. Through a Cross-sectional survey, data were collected using a standardized questionnaire, discrete choice experiment (DCE) and analysed through a number of novel econometric approaches. Dairy agripreneurs had higher preference for group marketing, curative services and artificial insemination support services. However, dairy agripreneurs have less preference for business plan training service. In relation to willingness to pay (WTP), dairy agripreneurs were more willing to pay for group marketing (KES 8797.91/month), artificial insemination (KES 2816.01/month) and curative services (KES 2577.62/month), but were not willing to forgo KES 2411.29 per month for business plan training service. Secondly, the findings revealed that education level of household head, number of adults in the household, experience in dairy farming, land size, livestock type, number of cows owned, milk yield, price of milk, access to contract, type of road and level of buyer trust were the major factors that affect the likelihood of utilising agribusiness support services among dairy farmers. Thirdly, the findings indicate that there is positive and significant relationship between future orientation (β = 0.395, t=12.699, p=0.01), risk-taking orientation (β = 0.088, t=2.743, p=0.01) and market orientation (β = 0.136, t=3.609, p=0.01) on agripreneurial resilience. However, it was found that social orientation had a negative relationship with agripreneurial resilience (β = -0.166, t=3.966, p=0.01), while ASS had no mediating effect on the relationship between agripreneurial orientation and agripreneurial resilience. Finally, the results show that utilization of combination of ASS significantly increased milk productivity and income per year for smallholder dairy agripreneurs. The study recommended increased linkage on access of ASS and entrepreneusrhip capacity building programmes to smallholder dairy farmers