Impact of Farmers’ Involvement in Agricultural Value Chain on Livelihoods, A Case of Maize Seed Multiplication Programme in Baringo South Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Agricultural value chains must establish mutually beneficial and sustainable relationships with farmers and farmer groups to ensure commodity supply and farmers’ livelihoods are more resilient. Small-scale farmers, comprising most of the world's farming population are important actors in the agricultural value chains. A study was done to determine whether farmer involvement in the maize seed multiplication programme impacted their livelihoods in Baringo South, Kenya. The study focused on whether farmers’ ability to repay the credit, whether they make savings from maize seed multiplication programme, the sustainability of such savings and how the savings translate to consistency in meeting family basic needs. Results indicated that, sustainability of farmer savings from the maize seed programme was statistically significant in relation to farmers’ livelihoods; where, with a unit increase in sustainability of savings, the odds of a farmer inability to consistently provide for all his family basic needs decreased by 1.767. Only 61.8% of farmers reported to be making some income savings in the maize seed multiplication programme while 22.1% reported being unable to make any savings. Therefore, to enable farmers realize better productivity from maize seed multiplication programme and adequately sustain their family livelihoods, the study recommends; building farmer capacity on financial management and providing environment conducive for farmers so as to minimize losses and safeguard their hard-earned income.