The Role of Extraneous Incentives and Drivers in Farm Enterprise Diversification: A Study of Passion-Fruit (Passiflora edulis) Uptake in Uasin-Gishu County, Kenya

摘要

Despite the continued production and overdependence of maize and wheat (traditional crops) as main source of income in Uasin-Gishu County, poverty among farmers has been increasing. To mitigate the poverty effects, farmers have tended to substitute land under the traditional crops for high yielding and high value crops, passion fruit inclusive. However, the uptake of passion fruit has been achieved with partial success. This study determined the extent of passion fruit adoption, factors affecting the adoption and its extent. Cross-sectional data from 100 randomly selected farmers were collected and subjected to Heckman two-step regression analysis to determine factors affecting passion fruit adoption as well as the extent of adoption. The results show that availability of water for irrigation (marginal effect = 0.481), title deeds (marginal effect = 0.316) and farming as main occupation (marginal effect = 0.486) significantly and positively affected the adoption of passion fruit while age (marginal effect = 0.009) was significant with negative effect. Private land ownership and access to extension services significantly and positively influenced the extent of adoption while age had significant negative effect. The results mean more incentives and innovative drivers are necessary for crop diversification and substitution in Kenya and not sufficient for adoption of the new crops. Government and other stakeholders should formulate and implement effective policies related to promotion of adoption, production and marketing of new agricultural technologies.