The Effect of Participation in Farmer Groups on Household Adoption of Sustainable Land Management Pr

In Kenya's Lake Baringo Basin, land degradation is a primary source of diminishing yields and the loss of dryland ecosystem resilience. Sustainable Land Management (SLM) methods are one of the remedies to land deterioration in drylands. The Kenyan government and its development partners have made improving farmers' capacity to adopt SLM technologies a key approach for combating land degradation. Building this capacity is the responsibility of state agricultural extension services. Unfortunately, such extension services have had little impact in the Kenyan drylands. To counter this inadequacy in extension services, farmers have formed grass-root organisations to foster networks of support and information sharing. In this paper, we analysed the effect of participation in farmers organisation in promoting adoption of SLM practices by agropastoralists in the Lake Baringo Basin. Data were collected through in-depth household interviews with 150 farmers, 79 of them group members and 71 non-group members. Level of knowledge, sources of information and challenges of SLM adoption were studied. The study revealed significant and positive association between group participation and adoption of SLM practices at X2 (3, N=150=63.209, P=0.000). Additionally, group partnering with development agencies like Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and government departments was reported to have significant influence on household adoption of SLM practices at X2 (3, N=79=13.147, P=0.004). The results indicated that farmer groups can effectively be used to leverage farmers' adoption of SLM innovations and potentially improve household income and food security in the Kenyan drylands. We suggested that farmer groups improve their organisational and resource capabilities in order to be more effective in providing resources and services to their members. Furthermore, government research and extension agencies, as well as academics, should consider developing partnerships with farmer groups to develop SLM technology tailored to the farmers' location and circumstances.

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