A study was conducted in the four counties the maize- wheat-teapotato and sugarcane-based farming system in North western Kenya to explore the variability among household characteristics and farm productivity. The aim of this work was to establish homogenous groups of crop-livestock mixed...

Food and nutritional insecurity are responsible for poverty and low livelihoods of about 33% of people living in western part of Kenya. This is against MDG1. The production of sorghum which is a staple food crop is below 0.5 t/ha, against the potential of 3-4 t/ha. Drought is a major factor...

Commercialization occurs both between households within the same community, as well as between households and external markets. The drivers of commercialization at household and community level are not yet well understood. The trend in commercialization is increasing in most of the agricultural...

Soy okara, a by-product of soy milk processing, is often underutilized or unutilized. The research was carried out to assess the potential of incorporating okara in bakery products to improve the nutritional quality. Fresh okara was dried, ground and sieved to obtained fine flour. The okara...

Climate variability, the short-term fluctuations in average weather conditions and agriculture affect each other. Climate variability affects the agro ecological and growing conditions of crops and livestock, and is believed to be the greatest impediment to the realisation of the first...

Acidity is among the problems that affect crop production in Zambia. The problem is no longer restricted to the traditional agro-ecological region III but has now become widespread in all parts of Zambia. The problem is exacerbated by continuous use of chemical fertilizers and mono cropping....

Irrigated vegetable crop production as a viable economic venture helps farmers gain full employment, all year round and generate substantial amount of income. However, the positive prospects of emergence of dynamic and strong commercial horticulture sector among small farmers in the Lume area...

The biophysical and climatic characteristics of the arable pockets of northern Kenya are different from other arable parts of the country. The mountain and oasis areas of northern Kenya, where crop farming is practiced are characterized by heterogeneity. The suitable pulse crops for these zones...

This study examines productivity growth of 3 ECOWAS crops, namely, rice, cotton and millet, using both Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Data Envelopment analysis (DEA). The data cover a 45 year period (1961-2005). Calculations are based on data collected from FAOSTAT database,...

This study analyzed credit use and its effect on production efficiency of cocoa farms in Ondo State. Primary data were collected in a crosssectional survey of 183 randomly selected cocoa farms. These were drawn in a multi-stage sampling process that covered the five dominant cocoa producing...