Membership decision and intensity of participation in avocado producer and marketing groups in kandara sub county, Murang’a County
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Date
2017-11
Authors
Maindi, Nyambune Catherine
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Abstract
Collective action through formation of Avocado producer and marketing groups (APMGs) is one of the interventions adopted by Murang‟a County government to enable smallholders mitigate the market imperfections and contend with the recent transformations in agri-product markets. Despite this, most of the APMGs are dysfunctional due to free riding and lack of member commitment regarding participation in the group and its operations. Participation in group operations is critical to enable the members leverage their input and output resources in order to achieve economies of scale, enforce democracy, transparency and accountability of group leadership besides fostering member solidarity, trust and cohesion. This study therefore, analyzed the determinants of decision to join APMGs, participation and intensity of participation in APMG activities, in Kandara Sub County, Murang‟a County. Probit model was applied to analyze the decision to APMG membership and double hurdle model for participation and intensity of participation in the APMG activities. Participation and intensity of participation in group sales, annual contributions and group meeting attendance were used as proxies of member commitment to the APMGs. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire to interview 138 households who were sampled randomly (110 group members selected proportionately to the group size and 28 nonmembers) from Kandara Sub county in Murang‟a County. The data was then analyzed in STATA 13. The probit results indicate that avocado quantity, gender, farm experience, assets, off-farm income and information access had a positive effect on the probability of joining APMGs. The double hurdle model results revealed that avocado quantity, education level, household size and credit access emerge as key determinants of participation in the APMG activities. Finally, farm size, membership density, group age, trust index, group size, homogeneity index, decision making index, fine existence and provision of free inputs had a significant effect on the intensity of participation. Policy implications drawn by this study encourage strategies that enhance member registration and commitment to the APMGs. First, strategies to foster inclusivity in decision making in group matters as well as offering incentives such as free inputs and imposing fines to non-compliant members should be encouraged. Also, the group size should constitute of group sizes 14 to 19 members. In addition, polices to facilitate accessibility of credit markets to smallholders and market information can enhance production and better quality avocadoes thus heighten participation in the producer and marketing groups. Finally, there is need to foster trust among the group members and other actors involved such as the extension providers, export agents and NGOs to win the members confidence to the APMGs
Description
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Science (agribusiness management and trade) in the school of agriculture and enterprise development of Kenyatta University, November, 2017