Socio-economic and psychological factors influencing smallscale farmers’ adoption of farm-forestry policy in Narok north Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

The government of Kenya has over the years promoted the adoption of farm-forestry through various programmes and initiatives with the aims of reversing land degradation and increasing forest cover. One of the most recent efforts was through the establishment of the farm-forestry rules of 2009 which stipulated that 10% of agricultural land should be under trees. However, farm-forestry adoption in the country has remained sub-optimal causing concerns to policy makers. This study, therefore, encompassed both socio-economic and psychological factors to gain a holistic understanding of the adoption of farm-forestry in Narok North Sub-County. An explanatory sequential mixed method research design was used in which quantitative data was first collected followed by the collection of qualitative data. The Nassiuma’s equation was used to calculate the sample size for the quantitative research and a sample size of 110 small-scale farm households was obtained. The quantitative study used a two-stage sampling procedure whereby in the first stage proportionate sampling was used and the second stage involved simple random sampling. Purposive sampling was used for the qualitative data in which 10 farm-forestry adopters and 10 non-adopters were selected based on their tree density levels. Quantitative data was obtained using a structured questionnaire while qualitative data was collected using interview guides. The instruments were validated prior to the collection of data. A pilot test was carried out with 10 farming households in Narok East Sub-County and the reliability of the instrument was determined using cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The reliability test yielded a coefficient of 0.79 which was deemed sufficient. The results of this study showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between age-group, gender, level of education, extension contact and farmergroup membership and adoption of farm-forestry. Land tenure status and agricultural enterprise were also found to significantly influence the adoption of farm-forestry. While the land sizes of farm-forestry adopters and non-adopters were found to be significantly different. There were also statistically significant differences between the attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control of farm-forestry adopters and non-adopters. The results of the Tobit model showed that gender and land tenure status significantly predicted adoption of farm-forestry. The results of the qualitative data analysis revealed that both farm-forestry adopters and non-adopters understood the importance of practising farm-forestry. However, the farm-forestry non-adopters felt that farm-forestry was a long-term and risky venture that was both knowledge and resource intensive. Therefore trainings to equip farmers with knowledge and skills on farm-forestry practice and other forms of support prove imperative if the government intends to increase the adoption of farm-forestry.