| dc.description.abstract | The importance of coffee production in the world economy cannot be ruled out due to its contribution
in the developing countries in areas such as creation of employment and rise in foreign exchange.
Most of the coffee producing countries in the world have come up with strategies to increase their
quantity and improve the quality of their produce. In Kenya, the government have also come with
numerous policies to support coffee production at the farm level but production of coffee in Kenya
has since 1989 crop year been declining. There has been emergence of other enterprises that are
profitable than coffee production such as real estate and dairy sector in most of the coffee-growing
zones, but there are many farmers who have been determined to maintain coffee production.
Despite the efforts made by the government to maximise coffee production in terms of quality and
quantity, production has shown a downward trend, with some farmers completely doing away with
production This study was aimed at assessing the factors that affect optimization of coffee
production in Chuka sub-County, Tharaka-Nithi County. Proportional stratified random sampling was
used to select a sample of 153 respondents from a population of 7,428 small-scale coffee farmersfrom ten cooperatives in the sub-County. The findings of the study indicated that access to
extension, access to research and management of coffee cooperative were essential in coffee
production with a mean agreement of 58.33%. The research established that access to extension
(5%) and management of cooperatives (5%) were statistically significant while access to research at
(5%) was statistically insignificant. Similarly, access to extension services increased optimization by
91%, poor management of coffee cooperatives reduced production by 45.1%, while access to
research increased coffee production by 51%. Therefore, it is important to ensure farmers access
extension services, research and there is improved management of coffee cooperatives. | en_US |
