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Title Community assessment of drought tolerant maize for Africa (DTMA) in Kenya
 
Names Muhammad, L.
Mwabu, D.
Mwangi, W.M.
La Rovere, R.
Date Issued 2009 (iso8601)
Abstract While maize is the most important agricultural commodity in Kenya, its production often falls below requirements whenever there is drought. The main aim of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project is to address such shortfalls in maize production through developing and disseminating drought tolerant cultivars. The DTMA Project (http://dtma.cimmyt.org) is jointly being implemented by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard G. Buffet Foundation. The project is part of a broad partnership also involving national agricultural research and extension systems, seed companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and advanced research institutes, known as the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Initiative. Its activities build on longer-term support by other donors, including the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the Eiselen Foundation. The project aims to develop and disseminate drought tolerant, high-yielding, locally-adapted maize varieties and to reach 30-40 million people in sub-Saharan Africa with these varieties within 10 years. Community surveys were undertaken for this project in Machakos and Makueni districts to provide baseline socioeconomic information. Objectives of this survey were to: acquire information to facilitate the analysis of the socioeconomic and bio-physical environment in which the DTMA varieties would be adopted and their performance evaluated; to provide the context for the design, conduct, analysis and interpretation of household surveys; and to integrate community level information with production and price data, and information from other sources, to facilitate the characterization of household livelihoods, cropping systems, farm produce and inputs markets, and to gain insights into the constraints faced and available opportunities. The findings of the community survey portrayed two communities faced with shrinking land holding sizes and degradation of the natural resource base through loss of nutrients and erosion of soil, biodiversity and grazing resources. The communities face challenges including declining amounts of seasonal rainfall, increased frequencies of drought and increased risk of crop failure. While improvements in the road transport infrastructure were identified, along with improvement in the reach and densities of farm inputs distribution, the majority of smallholders have not benefited from this due to high access costs. Farm productivity in general, and maize productivity, in particular, are declining. This decline in productivity of maize was attributed to factors such as continued reliance on low-yielding and risk-prone varieties, lack of extension services and unavailability of credit. The general assessment was that more than two-thirds of households were food insecure most of the year. Despite marked improvements in the number and quality of service providers now available in the area, health status was considered to have deteriorated over the previous 10 years. The level of poverty (already higher than the national average) was considered to be increasing. The findings of this survey indicate that attributes of DTM varieties such higher yields, better drought tolerance and shorter maturity periods relative to the currently marketed varieties currently in the market, are likely to lead to their more widespread adoption. The survey identified a fairly dense network of farm inputs suppliers which would facilitate seed distribution. Seed distribution is also likely to benefit from the network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) whose typical activity portfolios include aspects of agricultural development. Given the high levels of poverty in both Machakos and Makueni districts, widespread adoption of DTMA varieties is unlikely to occur in the absence of policies which address provision of incentives to farm inputs traders. Another reason for poor adoption is the difficulty that farmers face in accessing cash, as well as the aversion to risk of losing their investment in the maize crops in case of drought. The study identified a number of financial institutions and an existing cooperative movement in the two areas. At the time of the survey, lending for agricultural purposes was a low priority for these institutions. Another key finding was that adoption of DTMA varieties is likely to result in greater empowerment of women. Although the qualitative methods employed for this study were strong, in interpreting the findings, conclusions and policy recommendations proposed by the authors, the reader should remember that limitations to the approach exist. Carefully designed adoption studies to facilitate statistical or econometric modeling of causeeffect relationships among household characteristics, variety attributes, institutional factors, drought risk and the likelihood of adoption must be implemented to complement the findings of this survey. Taken together, results of such surveys can greatly aid in establishing variety development objectives, evaluation or adaptation experiments and, most of all, in designing strategies to make the varieties available to the majority of farmers.
Genre Book
Access Condition Open Access
Identifier 978-92-9059-260-0