Role of farm attachment programme on technology adoption among small holder farmers in Baringo and Nakuru counties, Kenya

Abstract

Despite the pertinence of Agriculture to the economy, its potential has not been realized. To address this shortfall, research and training institutions have designed and generated knowledge and technologies. However, the innovations generated have hardly reached the end users. In response, Egerton University established Farm Attachment Programme (FAP) to innovatively engage small-scale farmers in 2014. Despite FAP being in operation since 2014, little is known about its effectiveness and how the main stakeholders perceived it. This study sought to determine its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOTs) to evaluate the factors influencing perceptions towards FAP, and determine its effectiveness on technology adoption among small-scale farmers. A survey of 100 farmers was conducted in two counties using interview schedules and a proportional sampling technique to randomly select and interview a sample of 154 students using pre-tested questionnaires. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis(CFA) model was used to determine the SWOT of FAP. To determine the perception of farmers and students, a perception index was created using a CFA then an ordered logit regression employed. From the SWOT analysis, higher factor loadings of 0.763 on Factor 2 indicated that increased technology awareness and access among farmers was the main strength of FAP while 0.686 on Factor 1 indicated that increase in farmer linkage was the main opportunity. On the other hand, loadings of 0.830 and 0.760 on factor 3 and 4 indicated that short attachment duration and high costs of student accommodation were the main weakness and threat of FAP respectively. The ordered logit results showed that farmer’s perception was positively influenced by security of tenure, slope and students’ knowledge. The number of contact with extension agents had a positive effect on students’ perception. On technology adoption, majority of farmers, 64% were introduced to tillage management, followed by 63% to relay cropping. Crop rotation was the most adopted practice, by 92.7% of the farmers, followed by green manure at 91.7%. The Tobit results revealed that the intensity of adoption was positively influenced by security of tenure and number of cohorts a farmer had hosted student (s). The overall adoption rate was 43.21% It was found that the programme was effective in enhancing the hands-on experience and agricultural productivity of students and farmers respectively. In addition, the programme was more effective in enhancing the rate of technology adoption than the conventional extension programme. Therefore, the study recommends a policy for strengthening the acquisition of title deeds to motivate farmers to undertake long-term investments of the interventions introduced. Based on the intensity of adoption, the study further recommends that the programme should be expanded to other counties in the country.