Journal of
Development and Agricultural Economics

  • Abbreviation: J. Dev. Agric. Econ.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2006-9774
  • DOI: 10.5897/JDAE
  • Start Year: 2009
  • Published Articles: 556

Article in Press

Factors influencing participation and commitment to collective action among smallholder passion fruit farmers in nandi county, Kenya

Walter K. Kibet,Job K. Lagat,Raphael Gitau Kanyingi

  •  Received: 22 June 2022
  •  Accepted: 15 December 2022
Passion fruit is one of the high value horticultural crops cultivated by smallholder farmers because of high returns. The enterprise is gaining inroads in the predominantly cereal growing areas of North Rift. Its production has not been intensified since farmers grow few vines, but they are now forming passion fruit producer and marketing groups. However, the contribution of collective action is not clear. This informed the study. The study was conducted in Nandi County, Kenya with an objective of understanding factors influencing participation and Commitment to collective among smallholder passion fruit farmers. Both primary and secondary data was collected using multistage sampling techniques to arrive at a sample of 141 selected respondents. Data collected was analysed using excel for descriptive statistics and STATA was adopted in analysing double hurdle model. From the findings, selling price, membership in other groups, training on passion fruit enterprise management and distance to the nearest output market positively influenced smallholder farmers’ participation and commitment to collective action, whereas education level and age of the producer had a negative effect. It is recommended that stakeholders should promote collective action in developing input and output markets for smallholder farmers.

Keywords: Double Hurdle, Collective action, Smallholder farmers.