Farm level management practices for sustainable French Beans farming in Nyeri county

Abstract

The transformation from agriculture to agribusiness remains an elusive goal for many of the farmers in Kenya. This is a similar situation to horticultural products which require high levels of maintenance and management. The inability to transform often leads to higher poverty levels and increased food insecurity which hinder sustainable development. The objective of this research was to analyze farm level management practices for sustainable French beans farming in Nyeri County. The specific farm level management practices that the research sought to analyze included; resource management, risk management, research and development. The four capital model acted as the guide and the anchoring theory for this research. The research adopted a descriptive survey design to enable wide reach of the population and the study of various variables. The target population for the study was 850 French beans farmers. From this the research selected a representative sample of 265 farmers. The research collected data using self-administered questionnaires. The collected data was evaluated using descriptive and inferential statistics through the statistical package for social sciences software. The research presented the findings of the research in tables. The research employed regression analysis to establish the influence of the dependent variable-sustainability on the independent variables- resource management. The findings of the research revealed that farm level management practices had a positive influence to the sustainability of the French beans farm in Nyeri County. The lack of the adoption of these practices resulted in low yields for the farmers. Therefore, the study recommended that the farmers receive training and support on how to take their farms as businesses and help them shift to agribusiness. The training would help the farmers irrespective of their education level as they would act as tools of information dissemination and communication which would contribute to the sustainability of the French beans farm.