Selected socio-economic factors influencing access to agricultural extension services among pastoralists in Wajir County, Kenya

Abstract

Agricultural extension services play an important role in boosting agricultural productivity worldwide. Despite concerted efforts by pastoralists in Wajir County to access agricultural extension services delivered by agricultural public service providers, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and private extension agents, the access to these services is inadequate. This has led to low levels of agricultural productivity, ultimately leading to high levels of poverty and food insecurity in the County. This may be due to several factors among them, socio-economic factors. This study examined the influence of selected socio-economic factors on access to agricultural extension services among the pastoralists in Wajir County. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Target population was 52,478 household heads in Wajir East and Wajir West Sub-County in the County. Simple random sampling was used to select a sample size of 120 household heads who were proportionately distributed among the two Sub-Counties in Wajir County. Data was collected by a questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions. The questionnaire was pilot tested on 30 households’ heads in Wajir South Sub-County and an alpha Cronbach’s coefficient of 0.80 was obtained. Data analysis was tested by inferential and descriptive statistics. The statistical procedure and service solution (SPSS) version 20 was used for analysis. Hypotheses were tested using Pearson correlation, multiple and linear regression. All tests were computed at α=0.05. The findings showed that 50 per cent of the respondents from both Sub-Counties interacted with agricultural extension agents. Insecurity in the two Sub- Counties did not show a statistically significant influence on access to agricultural extension services by the pastoralists, p>0.05. There was a statistically significant influence of cultural and economic factors on access to agricultural extension services by the pastoralists in Wajir County, p<0.05. The findings may inform policy makers on formulating and implementation of policies that may improve accessibility to agricultural extension services by pastoralists in Wajir County. During the formulation and implementation of the policies on agricultural extension services dissemination, demographic factors, cultural factors and economic factors of the pastoralists should be considered.