Abstract:
Cereal banks in Kenya were started by Government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other civil society with the aim of enhancing local food security, improving incomes and livelihoods for maize farmers through collective marketing. Despite efforts of establishing them, majority have collapsed once outside support is withdrawn. Generally it is known that farmer organizations including cereal banks tend to collapse if there is no participation in group activities, poor group management, inadequate group managed produce and if they don’t access extension services, credit and market. The purpose of this study was to identify factors influencing sustainability of cereal banks among maize farmer groups in Kimilili Sub-county, Kenya. A descriptive survey design was adopted with a target population of 15 farmer groups participating in cereal banking from a population of 138 registered groups in the study area. Proportionate sampling was used to select a sample size of 188 respondents from the 15 groups. Data was collected using a questionnaire and interview schedule. The instruments were validated by experts and peers. Reliability of the two instruments was ensured through a pilot-test using 30 farmers from Kanduyi, Bungoma South Sub-county practising cereal banking. A Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.77 was also obtained for the questionnaire. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics aided by Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17.0. A chi square test of independence was used to test the hypotheses at a significance level of 0.05 α. The study revealed that democratic governance and adequate technical skills was a major hindrance for successful management of cereal banks. Farmer groups were not bulking adequate quantities of maize to sustain the operations of the cereal banks. The study concluded that democratic governance and adequate technical skills was a major challenge to the sustainability of cereal banks in the study area since the management committees lacked the requisite competencies to manage the cereal banks. As a result of the findings the study recommends training of cereal bank management committees on management skills, networking, market linkage and storage pest management; establishing an apex cereal bank with an expanded mandate at the sub-county headquarters and formal registration of all cereal banks in the sub-county to enable them access additional finance from government and donor agencies.
