RP-Department of Management Science

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Browsing RP-Department of Management Science by Subject "Agribusiness"

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    An analysis of agribusiness support projects contribution on coffee production in Machakos county-Kenya
    (Contemporary Research Center, 2016) Mutua, Martin Ambrose; Kioko, Faith Mumo
    The increasing demand of coffee all over the world has surpassed the supply. This has led to a focused attention by key stakeholders in coffee production. These players have recently introduced agribusiness support based projects aimed at increasing the production of coffee. These projects provide support services on farm advisory services, certification programs, credit facilities and market information. The focus for the programs has been in Africa with a particular attention given to Kenya. Despite this, coffee production in Kenya is steadily declining as farmers are changing their attention from coffee production to other economic activities. The fact that there is a retrogressive production of coffee in presence of these agribusiness support based project raises concern as to whether this project achieve improved coffee production. This therefore necessitates the need to analyse agribusiness support based projects on Kenya’s coffee production. The study sought to answer the question of the extent to which advisory services by agribusiness projects facilitative sustainable coffee production, the degree to which certification programs motivate farmers in coffee production, the extent to which credit facilities enhance profitable coffee production and the degree to which provision of market information facilitates better market prices for coffee farmers. The study was of benefit to farmers and all stakeholders in the value chain of coffee as it will provide a critical insight on how farm advisory services can be enhanced through adopted demand driven trainings and clustering of farmers to increase the scope covered by the projects. On certification projects, the study explored the need for participatory approach and offering premiums on certified coffees geared towards farmer’s motivation and the need to enhance the effectiveness of credit facilitation on long term basis. The study explored the need to enhance better ways of accessing market information for farmers. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The target population was coffee farmers in Machakos County. Convenient and census sampling techniques was used to select 2 districts with 100 respondents out of 320 coffee growers drawn from the management committees from various cooperatives. A questionnaire was used as the instrument of data collection. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).