Determination Of Factors Affecting Adoption Of Treadle Pump And Assessment Of Its Impact On Household Income Of Farmers In Western Kenya

Abstract

The recent past has seen increased development and promotion of cheap and manageable small scale irrigation technologies in Kenya. Such technologies have mostly been promoted by the Non Governmental Organizations with the aim of reducing overreliance on rain fed agriculture so as to improve smallholder farm productivity. One such technology is the manually operated low cost treadle pump, commonly referred to as the 'money maker'. The treadle pump has been designed and promoted by the Kickstart International. It targets farmers who may not afford motorized pumps and at the same time have small parcels of land. However, past studies indicate that there has been a low adoption of the treadle pumps, hence limiting the achievement of the envisaged welfare benefits as observed in other regions like Asia and India. The current study has used binary logit to examine the factors that affect the adoption of treadle pumps. The study further employs the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) technique to ~xamine the impact of treadle pumps on the household income of the farmers in Bungoma and Mumias Districts in Kenya. The study uses 11 sample size of 191 farmers, comprising 76 adopters and 115 non adopters. The results indicate that education, access to credit and the value of physical assets are positively correlated with adoption of the treadle pump, whereas distance from the main road is negatively correlated. In addition, vegetable farmers are more likely to adopt the treadle pump compared to staple crop farmers. The PSM results indicate a positive and significant impact of the money maker pump on the household incomes of the farmers. On average, adoption of the treadle pump increases the household income by Ksh 5,900 per month. The results highlight the need for policies that will promote the uptake of treadle pumps, as a part of the strategy to promote irrigation development in Kenya. These include policies that promote access to agricultural credit and those that are geared towards improvement of the rural infrastructure especially the rural road networks. Adult education programs should also be promoted to expose farmers to new technologies and enable them to perceive their benefits better. The results also imply that the poorest, who are the main target, may not benefit from the technology. Special programs that target this group should be put in place as one of the strategies for reducing poverty. These include programs that would allow the buyers of the pump to pay in installments as well as offering cheap credit to the farmers to enable them buy both the pump and complementary inputs. _