Analysis of Rice Marketing Channels Choices in Mwea Irrigation Scheme, Kirinyaga County, Kenya
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Date
2023
Authors
Murage, Boniface Wachira
Bett, Eric Kiprotich
Njehia, Bernard
Karani, Charles
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
e-palli
Abstract
The National Rice Development Strategy in (Kenya vision 2030) aims to improve food
security, rural employment, and income for smallholder farmers in the Mwea irrigation
scheme (MIS) through planned and intentional efforts. A study was conducted to identify
major influences in choosing market avenues among rice farmers. The study used a sample
size of 384 small-scale rice farmers to analyze the different rice marketing channels used
in MIS, and to understand the factors that influence farmers’ choices of marketing channels.
A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics
were used to characterize the marketing channels, multinomial logit model was used to
evaluate channel choices. The marketing channels were Channel 1: Farmer-Consumer
(0.3%); Channel 2: Farmer-Brokers-Millers-Consumer (51.1%); Channel 3: Farmer-Brokers-
Millers- Retailer-Consumer (42.3%); Channel 4: Farmer- Millers-Retailer-Consumer
(62.72%) and Channel 5: Farmer- Millers- Wholesaler-Retailer-Consumer (37.28%). The
most profitable channel was direct sales to consumers, which accounted for only 0.3%
of total rice production in MIS. The study also found that factors such as education level,
participation in marketing groups, distance to market, and age of the household head
significantly influenced farmers’ choice of marketing channels. The study is critical in enriching
literature on rice agricultural supply chains in Kenya. The study recommends policy
considerations to protect small-scale farmers from exploitative brokers and suggests registering
brokers to monitor their activities and set standards for fair practices, with the goal of regulating
their activities to prevent exploitation of small-scale farmers in rice marketing.
Description
article
Keywords
Brokers, Traders, Farmers’ Preferences, Marketing Channels, Multinomial Logit Model
Citation
Wachira, M. B., Bett, E. K., Njehia, B., & Karani, C. (2023). Analysis of Rice Marketing Channels Choices in Mwea Irrigation Scheme, Kirinyaga County, Kenya. American Journal of Economics and Business Innovation, 2(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.54536/ajebi.v2i1.1238