Response of Sorghum Production in Kenya to Prices and Public Investments
Loading...
Date
2018-01-30
Authors
Onono, Perez A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Canadian Center of Science and Education
Abstract
Expansion of sorghum production in the arid and semi-arid areas in Kenya has been singled out as a potential for
addressing food security challenges due to climate shocks affecting maize production and reduced availability of
arable land in the medium and high potential areas. Towards achieving this the government has used guaranteed
minimum output prices, input subsidies and public investments to promote agricultural developments as some of
the instruments of policy to provide incentives to farmers. Literature is deficient of studies on production
behaviour of sorghum in the country with respect to market prices and public investments. This study provides
an empirical evidence on the response of sorghum production to output and input prices as well as to public
investments. The study used data spanning the period 1978 to 2014 to fit an autoregressive distributed lag
(ARDL) specification of the output response equation using the EViews statistical software. The findings show
that sorghum production in Kenya does not respond to increases in its output price and is not adversely affected
by input prices. Increased development spending in agriculture lead to increased sorghum production and also
increase use of fertilisers and certified seeds. The findings suggest that policy interventions based on output
prices and input prices alone would not yield the desired increased expansion in sorghum production. The
government should increase budgetary allocations to agricultural development
Description
A Research Article in the Sustainable Agriculture Research
Keywords
Food security, Input prices, Output prices, Production response, Public investments, Sorghum
Citation
Onono, P. A. (2018). Response of sorghum production in Kenya to prices and public investments. Sustainable Agriculture Research, 7(526-2020-470), 19-29.