The relationships between selected factors and farmers’ demand for services from plant clinics in Nakuru-north sub- county, Kenya

Abstract

Plant clinics were introduced in Nakuru-North Sub-County in 2010 with the objective of improving farmers‟ access to crop protection extension services, subsequently reducing incidences of crop pests and diseases. The services are provided to the farmers on demand. Since their introduction, farmers‟ demand for the services has been low. Many farmers are therefore not benefiting from the services as it was intended. In order to understand the scenario and adopt policies that will ensure many farmers benefit from plant clinics services, it is crucial to establish the relationships between selected factors which are likely to determine farmers‟ demand for services from plant clinics, and farmers‟ demand for services from the plant clinics. The objective of this study was to establish the relationships between the selected factors; level of awareness of plant clinics, accessibility of plant clinics by farmers, farmers‟ perceptions of relevance of plant clinics, and farmers‟ perceptions of quality of services provided at the plant clinics. A Correlation study was conducted involving 152 farmers selected randomly from 6,000 small scale farmers in four out of the 12 locations of the Sub-County. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the farmers. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for windows. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize and present the findings in frequency distribution, percentages, means and standard deviation. The relationships between independent and dependent variables was analyzed using Chi-square and interpreted at α=0.05 level of significance. The study established that there are statistically significant relationships between the farmers‟ level of awareness of plant clinics, accessibility to plant clinics by farmers and farmers‟ perceptions of quality of services provided at the plant clinics, and farmers‟ demand for services from plant clinics. This implies that the demand for services from plant clinics depends on these factors. The study concludes that the demand for services from plant clinics can be improved by improving the farmers‟ awareness of plant clinics, accessibility of plant clinics by farmers and farmers‟ perceptions of the quality of services provided at the plant clinics. The study recommends that financiers of plant clinics should allocate more resources to improve these factors.