Ecological and socio-economic factors influencing smallholder Washington navel orange production in the Southern lowland zone of Machakos district, Kenya

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate the ecological and socio-economic factors influencing the production of smallholder Washington Navel oranges in the southern lowland zones of Machakos District. The attention of farmers has shifted from growing other cash crops such as cotton and sunflower to Washington Navel orange production as an alternative source of income in the last five years. A sample size of 183 farmers was interviewed out of 2295 farmers as a representative. In the study four Null hypotheses (Ho) were tested against their alternatives (Hi). All these were tested and rejected and their alternatives inferred. Various methods of data analysis were used. Simple descriptive statistics were utilized to calculate the means, frequencies, percentages, standard errors and standard deviations while multiple regression, stepwise regression and correlation analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Analysis of variance was used to test the-variation in yields between the two years selected (1989 and 1990) and within the five Divisions selected namely, Mwala, Kilome, Makueni, Yatta and Mbooni. Agronomic, ecological and socio-economic factors were found to interplay as a system enabling the farmers to produce their yields. Some of the problems faced by the farmers were pests and diseases,labour costs, exploitation by middlemen, poor markets, low producer prices and inadequate capital to purchase inputs. Intercropping was found to exist because farmers had small plots of land ranging from 1-10 acres, This entailed the production of maize, beans, cowpeas, mangoes, bananas among ix others. The stepwise regression analysis entered seven variables, which were found to explain 97.2% of the total variation in yields in the southern lowlands of Machakos District. The remaining 2.8% was probably explained by other factors not selected by the stepwise regression analysis. This study revealed that washington Navel orange farming is far from taking roots, the markets are far from getting saturated and there is a promising potential in this field. It is therefore necessary that soil analysis should be done by planners to map out the ideal soils for crop production ~nd recommendations made on the best fertilizers to be applied. There is also an urgent need to provide more Extension Officers and Technical assistants in the study area to help farmers plan their farms. Attention should be given to farmers' complaints, by providing them with credits, increase the producer prices of oranges and improve local and international markets. Though, all efforts were made to unearth all the problems (ecological, social and economic), further research needs to be conducted on soils and their impact on orange yields. Scholars should make efforts to study the soil composition, soil texture, bulk density, structure, moisture, pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC) and percentage base saturation to find if mineral deficiencies not studied in this work could be the cause of the associated orange problems. This will assist farmers in producing more oranges to cater for the national and international needs. In conclusion,I would like to point out that pests and diseases,high transport costs and marketing problems should be looked into to enable farmers do well in this sector