Determinants Influencing the Adoption of Rice Intensification System among Smallholders in Mwea Irrigation Scheme, Kenya

Abstract

Rice farming has received considerable attention in developing countries and particularly in Kenya due to its impact on smallholders’ income and food security. Irrigated rice is the largest consumer of water, and its sustainability is threatened by water shortage. This has necessitated the development of alternative irrigation water technologies, such as the system of rice intensification (SRI), which are efficient in water use with improved yields. This study analyzed the determinants of adoption of SRI in the Mwea Irrigation Scheme where stratified sampling was used to obtain 364 smallholder rice farmers. A semistructured questionnaire was used to collect primary data, which was then analyzed using a binary logistic regression model. The results showed that age (−0.3%) was significant but with a negative effect on adoption of SRI. Farm size (2.499%), household size (1.895%), distance from the canal (1.354%), off-farm work (3.953%), access to credit services (8.714%), access to extension services (7.809%), and years in rice farming (0.409%) were found positively and significantly influencing factors to the adoption of SRI. Therefore, this study concludes that smallholders attempt to improve rice productivity through adoption of SRI should give a special priority to all significant factors.

A cost benefits analysis of the adoption of system of rice intensification: Evidence from smallholder rice farmers within an innovation platform in Oluch irrigation scheme, Kenya

“…It is the multi-stakeholder approach that increases the capacity to solve technical problems and address systemic challenges [ 24 ], in our context adoption of SRI practices. Although we do not assess the influence of farmer specific characteristics such as age, physical productivity, education level, information constraints, as important predictors of differences in yield among farmers, we still acknowledge that known individual characteristics that are associated with uptake of SRI [ 19 , 25 , 26 ] would still explain variations in farmer specific yield and returns on investment. It may be worth exploring the influence of such factors in larger studies.…”

The influence of multi-stakeholder networks on the uptake of system of rice intensification among smallholder rice farmers in western Kenya

“…A few reasons can be fronted for this. First, it is also important to realise that technologies such as SRI while accosted by many common challenges in several settings where its adoption has been studied (Kaloi et al, 2021;Katambara et al, 2013;Udimal et al, 2017) there are important region-specific differences and other factors such as farmer dynamics, government policy environment, research community support that will differ from case to case. Secondly, IP diversity (Pamuk and Van Rijn, 2019) and compositional dynamics of IPs (Lamers et al, 2017) are known to play an important role in technology adoption but these are often different across different value chains or settings.…”

“…This is contrary to the traditional approach of addressing broader technology adoption and adaptation objectives through actions taken in isolation by a single stakeholder without regard to interacting forces as is the case of the typical introduction of technology by government mainstream (agricultural extensionists) agricultural extension agents. Of the several technologies for improving rice productivity proposed across Asia and Africa, the system of rice intensification (SRI) has emerged as highly favourable for Africa, especially among smallholder farmers (Kaloi et al, 2021). To date, several studies have now documented the benefits of SRI in Kenya and across SSA (Kaloi et al, 2020;Katambara et al, 2013;Mati et al, 2012;Ndiiri et al, 2013;Omwenga et al, 2014) and the constraints to its widespread adoption (Kaloi et al, 2021;.…”

“…Of the several technologies for improving rice productivity proposed across Asia and Africa, the system of rice intensification (SRI) has emerged as highly favourable for Africa, especially among smallholder farmers (Kaloi et al, 2021). To date, several studies have now documented the benefits of SRI in Kenya and across SSA (Kaloi et al, 2020;Katambara et al, 2013;Mati et al, 2012;Ndiiri et al, 2013;Omwenga et al, 2014) and the constraints to its widespread adoption (Kaloi et al, 2021;. In countries such as Kenya, SRI has been shown to improve yield and gross revenue by at least 30% (Kaloi et al, 2020;Ndiiri et al, 2013) and marketing decisions among farmers .…”