ANALYSIS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS, AGRONOMIC PRACTICES AND COOPERATIVE DIVERSITY ON COFFEE YIELD GAP AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN NYERI CENTRAL SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Coffee significantly aids in the reduction of poverty in households, increases the gross domestic product (GDP) of Kenya and generates tax revenue. However, the coffee yields have been declining over the last two decades which is revealed by the reduction in acreage by 30% from 170,000 ha in the 1980s to 108,199 ha in 2021. This has resulted to decrease in production by 70% making it hard for smallholder coffee farmers to benefit from the sector. The ultimate result is a large yield gap between farmers’ actual yields and the potential productivity of the coffee varieties from the KALROCoffee Research Institute, Ruiru. This study aimed at identifying factors (socioeconomic characteristics, agronomic practices and cooperative diversity) influencing coffee yield gap among smallholder coffee farmers in Nyeri Central sub-county, Nyeri County. A cross-sectional research design was used and through the systematic random sampling technique, a sample of 175 smallholder coffee farmers was drawn from the target population of approximately7000 coffee farmers. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for the study with its validity determined by the academic supervisors and the experts in the coffee sector. The reliability of the research instrument was also determined using the split half method. Primary data on coffee farmers’ socio-economic characteristics, agronomic practices and cooperative diversity were collected. The data on socio-economic characteristics, agronomic practices and cooperative diversity were analyzed as descriptive statistics using SPSS version 29 and their effect on coffee yield gap was determined using the fractional logit regression model in STATA version 17. The findings noted that the average farmers’ yields per hectare for Ruiru 11, Batian and SL 28 was 8,593.920 kg/ha, 3,545.277 kg/ha and 1,722.423 kg/ha, respectively. The yield gap estimated was 66,406.080 kgs, 53,454.722 kgs and 38,177.577 kgs for Ruiru 11, Batian and SL 28, respectively. Further, the yield gap index per farmer ranged between 84.99% to 96.90% and the yield gap index per variety was 88.54% for Ruiru 11, 93.78% for Batian and 95.68% SL 28. The model parameters indicated that gender of the household head, schooling years, household size, labour, weed management, disease management, extension, training as well as production and market information were negative but significant independent variables at p<0.05. The insect-pest management was found to have a positive and significant effect on coffee yield gap at p<0.05. The independent variables omitted in the model analysis were found to be insignificant and hence did not affect the outcome in this study. Moreover, negative coefficients indicated that an increase in each of the explanatory variables resulted in a decrease in the coffee yield gap, holding other factors constant. The marginal effect showed the number of units that the independent variable contributed to either increase or decrease the coffee yield gap. The study concluded that the smallholder coffee farmers’ age was 60 years which contributed to increased yield gap while households led by male individuals resulted to minimized yield gaps. Also, the smallholder coffee farmers were producing below their potential as depicted by the large yield gap estimate. Hence, this study suggests that farmers should fully implement the recommended agronomic practices fully and adopt the improved varieties especially Ruiru 11. Also, the Government and other stakeholders should support the extension services so as to increase coffee yields which would result in reduced coffee yield gap.