Abstract:
Market access is a major constraint facing agricultural commercialization in Kenya. The pressure on arable land and market changes are mainly felt by the smallholder farmers who are faced with high transaction costs such as information access and transport costs. In addition, these farmers face a number of institutional and technical factors putting their market survival at stake. To curb these challenges, formation of farmer groups and organizations has become important in bringing about collective action whose basis is social capital. However, this capital must be mobilized through group membership and other social dimensions to achieve collective action. The dimensions of the farmer organizations that constitute social capital and how they enhance market access are of great concern. This study therefore, sought to assess the role and influence of social capital on the performance (measured by commercialization) of producer groups amongst smallholder French bean farmers in enhancing market access and improved household incomes. The study was conducted in Mwea sub-county, Kirinyaga County and a multistage sampling method was used to obtain a sample of 174 farmers (95 group members and 79 non-group members) who were interviewed using structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was utilized in characterizing socio-economic attributes of the smallholder French beans farmers. Tobit model was used to determine influence of the social capital dimensions and institutional factors on groups’ performance while multiple regressions were used to assess the effect of group membership and social capital dimensions on household income. SPSS and STATA computer programs were used to process the data. The results showed that gender, age, education level, French beans yield, farming experience, transport cost, off-farm income, initial social capital, trust index and meeting attendance significantly influenced the extent of commercialization. Further, age, land size, land tenure, ownership of transport means, French beans yield, off-farm income, membership to other organizations, group heterogeneity and trust index significantly influenced household income. The results of this study enhanced a better understanding of social capital dimensions in farmer group performance. Understanding group marketing will help in interventions to increase income among the smallholder farmers.
