nfluence of Farm Size on Adoption of Improved Coffee Varieties by Smallholder Farmers in Mathira East Sub-County, Nyeri County, Kenya

Abstract

Coffee productivity in Kenya has been on decline while the global demand has been on the rise. Mathira East Sub-County has not been left out with notable decline since the 1980s negatively affecting the local and national economy. The decline is attributed to rising costs of farming and drop in yield from traditional coffee varieties. Despite introduction of improved coffee varieties, productivity has remained low. Thus, this paper investigated the influence of farm size on the adoption of the improved coffee varieties by smallholder farmers in Mathira East Sub- County. The study adopted the cross-sectional research design involving key coffee farming household informants. The results showed that most farmers with larger farms had adopted improved varieties. The binary logistic regression results indicated that farm size significantly influences adoption of the improved coffee varieties at p value of 0.011. This finding is attributed to the ability of farmers to diversify part of their land into improved varieties. The study recommends that the county government of Nyeri should enhance extension services to educate and train farmers on how to graft traditional coffee bushes with improved varieties. This could help farmers with small farm sizes to diversify part of their coffee into improved varieties.