Browsing by Author "Kamau, Joram Ngugi"

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    Are the AgriTech Technologies Available, Adaptable and Practical to Young Farmers? Lessons from Tomato farmers in Kirinyaga County, Kenya
    (Journal of Agricultural Science and Food Research, 2020) Kamau, Joram Ngugi; Kiprop, Ibrahim Nyariki; Kipruto, Geoffrey Kosgei; ; ;
    Information and communication technologies (ICTs) in particular mobile phone applications and internet are transforming how agribusiness is carried out in some parts of developing countries including Kenya. The spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially mobile phones, in developing countries has been both extensive and rapid creating a need to assess its efficiency and the rate of adoption. This study aimed at examining how farmers in the county integrate technological innovations in the production and marketing stage of tomato in the sampled area. The objective of the study was to examine how small scale farmers are integrating social media marketing platforms, digital credit, agricultural value addition and artificial intelligence in their production and marketing stages in the agricultural value chain. The results indicate statistically significant positive effects of AgriTech Technologies on farm income (t-prob 0.000<0.05). The results notably indicate that using social media marketing platforms has the highest positive contribution to a unit change in farm income (β= 3.84).Smallholder farmer’s ability to access knowledge, networks, and institutions essential for improving productivity, food security, and employment opportunities is a big challenge especially in rural areas where internet connectivity and poverty levels are alarming.
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    Household responses to COVID-19 shocks: A food security implication in Kenya
    (Prime Scholars Library, 2022) Karitu, Patrick Mutwiri; Kamau, Joram Ngugi; ; ;
    The primary objective of this study was to determine household coping mechanisms under COVID-19 pandemics and its implication on food security in the country. Poisson regression model was used to describe the relationship among a set of constructs that influence households meal count per month. The study identified coping strategies, credit listing and job loss as significant factors that determine the number of meals per month by various household. The study notes that the economic impact of COVID-19 has disproportionally impacted various households in the country differently based on their differential in their socio-economic status and their livelihood strategies. Based on this, it is important to understand the impact of this pandemic as well as the coping strategies employed by different household strata as they navigate the shocks of the pandemic. To combat this pandemic, households have shifted into more drastic coping mechanism to smoothen their consumption curve. More importantly, households have proportionally coped with the COVID-19-induced income shocks by changing their dietary patterns, which is also the most used coping strategy among the wage earners and those depending on transfer payments. Increased borrowing has also emerged as a major caution especially from the digital lenders who are less concerned about collateral. While this pandemic seems to continue into the foreseeable future, a raft of measures is recommended to caution the poor households against the pandemic. Protracted blanket lockdowns by the government should be the measures of last resort. Re-focusing on localized measures of ‘smart containment’ that both respond to the health crisis and limit economic consequences should be the focus.