Sustainable Agricultural Land Management – Factors influencing levels of adoption among farmers in Bungoma, Western Kenya
Climate change, population increase, land degradation and biodiversity losses are challenging small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Conventional agriculture is a large contributor to these issues, but adoption of sustainable agricultural land management practices (SALM) could be a possible solution. SALM increase the soils’ productivity, ensure food security for small-scale farmers and assist in climate change adaptation.
In Kenya, Swedish Cooperative Centre – Vi Agroforestry promotes SALM practices as way of dealing with climate change. To improve promotion efforts, the aim of the thesis was to identify factors influencing farmers in their adoption of SALM practices. The Diffusion of Innovations theory was used to see if adoption levels depend on the farmers’ perception of the practices’ relative advantage, level of compatibility and level of complexity.
The results show that relative advantage seems to be important, where high level adopters have a slightly more positive perception of the practices’ relative advantage than low level adopters. Access to money, land ownership and household decision making structures are other factors that may explain differences in adoption levels. Recommendations for promotion efforts include spreading knowledge on SALM, gender equality and resource mobilization, as well as strengthening the capacity of farmer’s groups.
Smeds, J. (2012). Sustainable Agricultural Land Management – Factors influencing levels of adoption among farmers in Bungoma, Western Kenya. Bachelor’s Thesis. Department of Government. Uppsala University.