Abstract—In Africa’s dry land areas, inappropriate agricultural practices including adoption of ISFWM technologies account for 28 percent of the degraded soils resulting to low land productivity with consequent increased food and nutrition insecurity. The study was carried to establish the factors that affect smallholder farmer’s adoption of ISFWM technologies. A multi-stage sampling was used. Two hundred and forty eight households were sampled in both sub-counties; Data collection was done by well-trained enumerators’ and analyzed using SPSS software. Regression models (Tobit and logit), as well as descriptive statistics were used to analyze factors that affect smallholder famers’ adoption of ISWFM technologies. The cost-effectiveness of the ISFWM structures was analyzed through Cost- Benefit Analysis. Tobit regression results revealed that The variables Age, gender, access to agricultural extension access and agricultural credit were found to influence adoption of ISFWM technologies significantly (P<0-05) whilst Education level, access to inputs, access to radio, Labor, appropriate equipment farm implements, output Market access and farmers’ perception on reliability of October-November Short rain season were cited to affect adoption of ISFWM highly significantly (P<0.01). The Cost-Benefit Analysis revealed that among the ISFWM structures practiced in LM AEZ 4 and 5 was Zai pit with CBR of 6.98 and 5.63 in LM AEZ 4 and 5, respectively followed by tied ridges with 5.29 in LM AEZ 4 and 5.14 in LM AEZ 5.

 

Index Terms—soil, water, farmers, yatta, Mwala, Kenya

Cite: M. M. Mutuku, S. N. Nguluu, T. E. Akuja, and P. Bernard, "Factors Affecting Adoption of Soil and Water Management Practices in Machakos County, Kenya," Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 292-295, December 2016. Doi: 10.18178/joaat.3.4.292-295