Impact of Agroforestry on Farm Production and Household Farm Income: Case Study of Kakamega District, Kenya

Abstract

Agroforestry holds an enormous potential for augmenting critical development and ameliorating environmental problems in Kenya. As a land use system that combines the production of food, livestock, and forest products, preferably on the same piece of land on a sustained yield basis, agroforestry offers potential for enhancing farm production and household farm income, while at the same time reducing the increasing conflicts between arable farming, livestock keeping, and forestry interests, especially in the high-potential areas that are facing intense population pressure. Most research and analysis of agroforestry systems have dealt with biophysical aspects, with little attention given to farmer utilization of agroforestry technologies to improve farm production and household farm income leading to enhanced household socioeconomic status. The study examined the impact of adoption of agroforestry technologies on farm production, household farm income, and as intermediaries the constraints to adoption of agroforestry technologies by farmers in Navakholo and Shinyalu Divisions of Kakamega District. Data was collected using a questionnaire survey of 241 randomly sampled households. The data was subjected to statistical analysis using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) computer programme. Qualitative treatment of data involved the use of frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, and dispersion. Correlation and regression analyses were run to determine any significant relationships between the study variables, namely; the adoption of agroforestry technologies, farm production, household use of multipurpose trees and shrubs (MPTs), household farm income, and constraints to adoption of agroforestry technologies by rural farmers. The results showed significant relationships between adoption of agroforestry technologies and farm production (B = 0.152,;,p< 0.05), adoption of agroforestry technologies and household farm income (B = 0.250, p<0.001), household use of MPTs and household farm income ([3 = 0.532, p<0.001), and a negative but not significant relationship between constraints to adoption of agroforestry technologies and adoption of agroforestry technologies (B = -0.22, p>0.05). It was concluded that agroforestry is an important variable in enhancing farm production and household farm income through increased household use of MPTs, and thus improved household socioeconomic status in Kenya.