Economic E Ciency Analysis of Banana Farmers in Kiambu East District of Kenya

Journal of Developments in Sustainable Agriculture. : ++2ῌ +,1 ( ,**3 )

Economic E$ ciency Analysis of Banana Farmers in Kiambu East District of Kenya: Technical Ine$$ ciency and Marketing E ciency

Stephen Mutuku Nzioka

Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki-*/ῌ 2/1, , Japan

Approximately2*ῌ of Kenya’s population lives in rural areas and derives its livelihood largely from agriculture. Agriculture makes up about,0ῌ of Kenya’s gross domestic product, and banana production occupies,ῌ of Kenya’s arable land. Bananas are grown both as a source of food and household income to millions of rural Kenyans; however, production has been declining in the last, decades. My objective was to examine banana production and marketing in Kiambu East District, with the aims of improving levels of banana production by small-scale farmers and making recommendations to improve marketing e$ ciency. A structured questionnaire was given to farmers in- Divisions of Kiambu East District: Githunguri, Municipality, and Kiambaa. A frontier production function was established, and results indicated that farmers operated at about 0*ῌ of the optimum production level because of technical ine $ ciency, resulting in low levels of production by individual farmers. If farmers received training on how to manage their traditional bananas and organized into marketing groups, they could improve their bargaining power and increase household income to as much as - times current levels. Farmers therefore should form production and marketing groups to grow and market their bananas collectively. Farmers also need to be given management training and ﬁnancial assistance to grow higher yielding varieties of bananas (e.g., Tissue Culture bananas). In addition farmers need to be trained on indigenous post-harvest technology to realize increased household incomes.

Key words: Frontier production function, marketing groups, Bargaining power, Household income, Technological change

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+. Introduction subsistence and small-scale farmers in Kenya. They occupy,ῌ of the total arable land and are ++. Background widely grown in areas with adequate rainfall. The Agriculture makes up,0ῌ of Kenya’s gross crop is grown as a source of both food and income domestic product,0*ῌ of export earnings (ﬂowers, to millions of rural Kenyans, and with the collapse fruits, vegetables and tea mainly), and./ῌ of of what used to be major cash crops in Kenya, government revenue (Muturiet al., ,**+ ). Ap- especially co # ee and tea, banana production has proximately2*ῌ of Kenya’s population lives in become an important source of household income rural areas, and they derive their livelihoods largely (Mbogohet al., ,**, ). Production, however, has from agriculture. The majority of the urban poor been on the decline for the past, decades also earn a living doing agriculture-related work. (Wanzala,,**/ ). This decline has threatened food There are an estimated./ . million small-scale security and household incomes in rural com- farmers in Kenya, and they account for1/ῌ of munities and also has reduced employment op- total agricultural output (Kimenyi,,**2 ). portunities. Bananas (Musa spp.) are grown mainly by many Received: October+ , ,**3 , Accepted: November , , ,**3 Corresponding author’s current address: P.O. Box.-- , 3*+-+ Tala, Kenya. E-mail: [email protected] Nzioka: Economic E$ ciency Analysis of Banana Farmers in Kiambu East District of Kenya 119

+,. Banana Production in Kenya but they could increase production e$ ciency by Banana is the most popular fruit in Kenya and is using new technology to increase technical e$ cien- often consumed as a desert whereas the cooking cy. variety also serves as a staple food. Bananas are Banana production in Kiambu East District is grown in a mixed farming system and are often rain fed, and the district has two rainy seasons. seen as a security crop, which provides continuous Banana plants produce continuously, and produc- household income under a low input regime (Qaim, tion reaches a peak during the rainy seasons. Pro- +333). Banana production, however, is often duction of bananas in Kiambu East District could neglected in terms of supplying input factors such be increased through irrigation initiatives, but most as fertilizer and water and is primarily managed by farmers cannot a# ord irrigation infrastructure. As women who have limited amounts of education and a result, bananas are grown in high rainfall areas are also responsible for domestic activities such as that have been under cultivation for a very long raising children and providing for other family time, leading to soil infertility and hence contribut- needs. Women also provide labor for income- ing to reduced banana production (Wambugu, generating activities such as growing tea, co# ee, ,**.). and vegetables and for dairy farming. They therefore have little time to concentrate on banana pro- +-. Banana Marketing in Kenya duction, which is treated as a subsistence activity Unlike other major cash crops produced in and given very little attention. Kenya for which cooperative marketing exists, Banana production in Kenya has been on the banana marketing in Kenya uses middlemen who decline in the past, decades for many reasons. buy bananas directly from the farmers at the farm Indigenous bananas take, years to mature, require gate and then transport them to a collection center more space to grow than high-yield varieties where they can be transported to Nairobi on hired (HYVs), produce small bunches, and yields are trucks. Most of the intermediary “middlemen” are uneven. Although high-yield disease-resistant actually women who purchase bananas from female varieties (e.g., Tissue Culture bananas) have been farmers (Qaim,+333 ). Distance from markets and developed by research institutions, many farmers poor transportation infrastructure makes it di$ cult continue to use low-yield bananas because high- for farmers to deliver bananas to local markets or yield banana plants (stools) are expensive. to the Nairobi market, but farmers directly sell ripe Farmers are not able to access credit to purchase bananas to consumers at local markets in a few HYV bananas because loans require collateral and cases. Retail prices of bananas in Nairobi are about farmers think they will be unable to repay the loans -.to times those in rural areas, indicating a high (New Agriculturist ,**3 ). Hence, most of the demand for bananas in Nairobi. Banana demand in technologies to improve production appear to be Nairobi is strong from urban consumers with no beyond the reach of small-scale farmers in Kenya. access to “home grown” produce (USAID Kenya, Moreover, farmers have limited crop management ,**0). Moreover, individual farmers in Kiambu knowledge of HYV bananas, and land under East District have little negotiation power because banana production has continuously been reduced they produce small amounts of bananas and do not because of the expanding population in urban act cooperatively (Mbogohet al.,,**, ; New Agri- centers (Wanzala,,**/ ). culturist ,**3). Most farmers in Kiambu East District conduct Mukhebi (,**. ) indicated that agricultural agriculture on a small scale. Farmers have an markets have not worked e$ ciently in Kenya since average land holding of, acres (Kiambu East market liberalization occurred in the late+32* ’s District Annual Report,,**2 ). On this piece of and early+33* ’s and identified . reasons for ine $ - land, a farmer has a house, grows a variety of cient markets: long transaction chains between the crops, and keeps dairy cattle. It is quite di$ cult for farm gate and consumers, poor access to appropri- farmers in Kiambu East District to increase banana ate and timely market information, small volumes production because the amount of land is restrict- of products of highly varied quality o# ered by ed, especially with the expansion of nearby Nairobi, individual small-scale farmers, and poorly struc- 120 J. Dev. Sus. Agr.., ( ) tured and ine$ cient marketing systems. Kinyua of -2+ , 03. , with an average population density of (,**2 a) identified the following causes of ine $ cien- + , *.. persons per km, , and 2*ῌ of the population cy in the banana value chain: a large number of lives in rural areas. Because of the high population intermediaries, a lack of comprehensive knowledge density, land has been fragmented into small of the market by all value players, policy and parcels and agricultural productivity has declined. institutional failures (e.g., no agreed upon grades The district has, broad topographical regions, and standards), low technical capacity for ripening, the upper midland and lower highland, and is divid- high costs in the chain (e.g., for transportation, ed into-,+ divisions: Githunguri ( km from transactions, and intermediaries), lack of consisten- Nairobi), Municipality (+- km from Nairobi), and cy in supply, and di$+* culties in changing the mind- Kiambaa ( km from Nairobi). set of farmers from subsistence to commercial The rainfall regime is bimodal and reliable. The farming. “long” rains occur in April and May (range ,/*ῌ +0** mm), whereas the “short” rains occur in Octo- +.. Objective of the Study ber and November (range+***ῌ +,** mm). The Very little research has been conducted on the mean daily minimum and maximum temperatures technical ine$$ ciency and marketing e ciency of in the district vary between 2-* to῎ . Soils are banana farmers in Kenya. Colman and Young generally fertile, but over-application of synthetic (,**, ) defined technical e $ ciency as the output fertilizers has made the soils acidic and crop pro- from a given set of inputs. In this study, the ductivity has fallen as a result. The main economic production unit is the banana stool. Colman and activities are farming and small business (self em- Young (,**, ) also defined technological change as ployment). The main staple crops grown in an improvement in the state of knowledge such that Kiambu East District are maize, beans, potatoes, production possibilities are enhanced. With tech- and bananas. Other vegetable crops are also nological change, the production function can shift grown, including tomatoes and cabbage. The main such that more output can be produced with the cash crops grown are co# ee and tea. Livestock same quantity of inputs. production is the mainstay of the population in My objective was to examine banana production Kiambu East District. Agriculture in Kiambu East and marketing in Kiambu East District, with the District is mainly rain fed, but high value crops aims of improving levels of banana production by such tomatoes, cabbage, and flowers are irrigated. small-scale famers and making recommendations to improve marketing e$ ciency. Kiambu East Dis- ,,. Data Collection trict was selected as the target area because bananas Data were collected from two sources: (+ ) a are grown by almost all households in this area both household survey describing personal characteris- for consumption and for income generation. tics, banana production and marketing, and agro- Bananas are the most commonly grown crop by processing of bananas, and (, ) the Kenya Bureau farmers in Kiambu East District and have a greater of Statistics. contribution to household incomes as compared A research survey design was used and a struc- with other food crops and fruits. tured questionnaire developed. The questionnaire 0$ ,. Materials and Methods was administered by agriculture o cers based in the- divisions of Kiambu East District. The ,+. Study Area questionnaire was divided into two major parts. Kiambu East District is+++ of districts in Part A covered the personal profile of respondents Kenya’s Central Province. It borders Nairobi City (name, gender, age, highest educational level, local- to the south and east, Kiambu West District to the ity, and occupation). Part B covered agricultural west, Thika District to the northeast, and Gatundu information, including land size, acreage under District to the northwest. The district is located at banana production, number of banana plants about+ῌ῍ +*῍῍ * South, -0 ῌ῍ /* * East, has an eleva- (stools), number of bananas (bunches) harvested tion of+1,* m above sea level (asl), and covers annually, and price per bunch. A total of ++/ -0/. 1 km, . Kiambu East District has a population farmers were selected randomly and interviewed Nzioka: Economic E$ ciency Analysis of Banana Farmers in Kiambu East District of Kenya 121 during the last week of January and the first week The relationships between the number of banana of February,**3 : -- in Githunguri, -2 in Munici- stools as production unit and the number of pality, and.. in Kiambaa Division. bananas harvested were thereby established. An Data on Kiambu East District infrastructure example of the banana frontier production function were obtained from the Kenya Bureau of Statistics. for Municipality Division is shown in Fig.+ .

Ej in equation (, ) can then be used as a measure ,-. Data Analysis of technical ine$ ciency because ,-+. . Banana Frontier Production Function ˆaq ῒῐῒ bx In many economic articles much attention has j j been paid to the estimation of productive e$ ciencywhereˆqj : Optimum production of bananas and by means of frontier production functions, which ˆqqijῑῒ E j was initiated by Farrell (+3/1 ) and has the ability This estimation is equivalent to solving the fol- to compare levels of e$ ciency across observations. lowing linear programming problem: A linear programming method was used to devel- nn n ῌῌῌ῎ῒ῎ῐ῏ῑῒ ῌ op the following frontier production function and min Ejjj῍῏ a bx q jjῒῒ++ j ῒ + to analyze banana production levels and technical such that: ˆqqῐ e$ ciency (Farrell, +3/1 ): jj min: naῒῐ bῌ xj bu Qjjjῒῌ aX e()+ such that : aῒῐῒῐ ῐῌῐῌ bx++ q a bx ,, q

abxqῒῐῐ῍῍ῐ-- abx ῒn WhereQj is the production quantity of tradition- th al bananas harvested,Xnnj is the number of banana where,ῒ farmer. stools,ab is a constant, is the coe$ cient of input Xj ,-,. . Marketing Analysis anduj is a disturbance term. Optimum banana production levels were ob- This function will usually be linear in the logs of tained for traditional banana using the frontier the variables, so equation (+ ) can be rewritten as production function as previously described. Those ﬁgures were then used to simulate/*ῑῑ and 3* ˆqῒῐ aῒ bx ῑῌ E (), ijj optimum levels of production for two scenarios: where qῒῒ logQ; x logQ and ῑῒ E u jjjjjj (+ ) the farmers work cooperatively and sell their

Fig.+ . Banana Frontier Production Function (FPF) for Municipality Division. 122 J. Dev. Sus. Agr.., ( ) bananas as a group at the Nairobi market (the levels of optimum production. The resulting aver- “group marketing” scenario) and (, ) the farmers age gross household incomes were used to calculate continue to sell their bananas individually to the net group household income by comparing middlemen at the farm gate (the “individual mar- banana production and marketing information keting” scenario)./*ῌ optimum level was chosen from Mbogohet al. ( ,**, ), which estimated aver- in the simulation because it is easier to achieve by age annual gross production costs to be-0 . 0ῌ of technological change in management of traditional the expected annual gross income for years+, and banana production by farmers, while3*ῌ opti- for Tissue Culture bananas. The average net group mum level was the desired improvement of banana marketing income was therefore calculated to be incase the extension agents played their role. Opti-0- . .ῌ of the average gross group income obtained mum level is the maximum production achievable from the simulation. The absolute and relative by use of the economic model. The simulation was di# erences and also the ratio between two systems done to observe the change in farmers household are presented in the results. income from banana marketing from current situa- -. Results and Discussion tion (“individual marketing scenario”) through technological change on traditional banana produc- -+. Technical Ine $ ciency tion through training of farmers and then market- Any farmer producing/ banana bunches per ing as a group (“group marketing scenario”). Indi- stool per year was considered to be above the vidual marketing scenario was pegged at the cur- optimum production level, and/ farmers who were rent situation of banana production. shown to produce above this level in the frontier In the group marketing scenario, transportation production function were not included in the tech- costs were estimated on the basis of the following nical ine$ ciency analysis, but they were included in current costs to hire a-# -t truck at the di erent the marketing e $ ciency analysis. divisions (distance from Nairobi inﬂuences the Farmers produced bananas at-. . 1ῌ below the cost):.*** Kenya Shillings (Ksh) for Githunguri optimum production level in Githunguri Division, Division and-*** Ksh for Municipality and -. . /ῌ below the optimum in Municipality, and Kiambaa Divisions (Kiambu East District Annual/* . .ῌ below the optimum in Kiambaa (Table + ). Report,,**2 ). Other estimated marketing costs On average, Kiambu East District farmers were (per bunch) included assembling and loading at the approximately.*ῌ technically ine $ cient in ba- source,,1* . Ksh; Nairobi council fee, 1/* . Ksh; nana production. and o# ering cost at the Wakulima market (the Several factors may have contributed to this rel- main market for bananas in Nairobi),*0* . Ksh atively high level of ine $ ciency. About 01ῌ of (Acharyaet al., ,**2 ). The total transaction cost farmers involved in banana production in was estimated to be-* . 2* Ksh per bunch for Githunguri Division and /3ῌ in Kiambaa Division Githunguri and,/ . 2* Ksh for Municipality and were women, while ,3ῌ were female in Municipal- Kiambaa. Average price was obtained by assuming ity. These results are in agreement with a previous an average banana bunch weight of,* kg and a study, which showed that banana production in Nairobi market price of-* Ksh per kg (USAID Kenya is perceived to be women’s work (Mbogoh Kenya,,**0 ). The average gross group marketinget al., ,**, ). Moreover, 2/ῌ of banana farmers in household income per farmer was then estimated Githunguri Division were above-0 years old, as using the current average banana price per bunch were3,ῌῌ in Municipality Division and 23 in (0** Ksh) at Nairobi multiplied by the average Kiambaa Division (Table, ). Women in this age number of bunches harvested and marketed per range are very busy with dairy farming activities, farmer less the total transaction costs. tea and co# ee production, and also the daily man- In the individual scenario, household income was agement of their families needs. These activities calculated from the farm gate price and current take much of their time and hence banana produc- production level at each household. tion tends to be neglected, leading to lower produc- The average gross group marketing household tion. Farmers educational attainment levels in the income were estimated at the di#- erent simulated divisions were also generally low- .-ῌ of banana Nzioka: Economic E$ ciency Analysis of Banana Farmers in Kiambu East District of Kenya 123

Table+ . Summary of the technical ine$ ciency analysis of banana production in Kiambu East District

Average number ofAverage number of Average optimum Technical Division banana stools perbanana bunches number of bananas ine$ ciency harvested per farmer harvested per farmer ῌ farmer per yearper year (QQ ) per year (+ ) ( )* Githunguri // +*2 +-- -.41 Municipality -, /1 3, -.4/ Kiambaa /0 +*, ,.0 /*4. Average .2 23 +/1 -343 * Technical ine$+** ciency῎ῌ (QQQ++ )/ ῍ .

Table, . Age distribution of banana farmers in Kiambu East District

Age Division (ῌ ) (Years) Githunguri Municipality Kiambaa +2ῌ ,/ - * * ,0ῌ -/ +, 2 ++ -0ῌ // -0 -3 // ῏// .3 /- -.

Table- . Educational attainment level of banana farmers in Kiambu East District

Education Division (ῌ ) level Githunguri Municipality Kiambaa None *-* Primary .- -. .0 Secondary -* 0* .- College ,1 - ++

producers in Githunguri Division and.0ῌ in divisions. Wanzala ( ,**/ ) observed that the in- Kiambaa Division had only attained a primary creased population is a leading factor in the declin- school education (Table- ). These factors could ing amount of land available for banana production decrease the farmers ability to access new technol- and the decreased production of bananas in Kenya. ogy such as HYV bananas because they either are Farmers in Kiambu East District rely on rainfall not aware or not interested in the technology for banana production because they lack irrigation (Colman and Young,,**, ). infrastructure. Wanzala ( ,**/ ) indicated that Farmers in Kiambu East District have limited many farmers in Kenya cannot a# ord to irrigate land holdings. About//ῌ of banana farmers in their bananas and hence their harvests drop Githunguri Division own,3, acres or less, whileῌ drastically during dry seasons, reducing banana of farmers in Municipality and2.ῌ in Kiambaa production. Furthermore, farmers may have limit- owned that amount (Table. ). Municipality and ed access to credit (Kinyua, ,**2 b), which may Kiambaa Divisions are close to the capital city of limit their ability to purchase HYV banana plants, Nairobi, and the demand for residential houses has fertilizers, and irrigation equipment. Acharya et al. increased as the population has increased, causing (,**2 ) indicated that use of traditional propagation the amount of farmed land to dwindle in the- leads to spread of pests and diseases, which could 124 J. Dev. Sus. Agr.., ( )

Table. . Land holding for banana farmers in Kiambu East District

Land area Division (ῌ ) (acres) Githunguri Municipality Kiambaa ῌ*/++,2,/1. ῌ ++,.-+*,1. ῌ ,+. ῌ - - / +. -+/,+-,. ῌ ῍/,+**

Table/ . Estimated average household income of banana farmers in Kiambu East District

Average individual Group marketing/ Level of bananaEstimated average Estimated average marketing Income Individual marketing productiongroup marketing increase in group (Current situation), (Current situation) income (Ksh) income (Ksh) Ksh ratio Githunguri Division /*ῌ Optimum Production -3532* +15.++ ,,5/03 +411 3*ῌ Optimum Production /*5-03 ,152** ,,5/03 ,4,- Optimum Production +*15+3/ 2.50,0 ,,5/03 .41/ Average 0/52.2 .-5,13 ,,5/03 ,43, Municipality Division /*ῌ Optimum Production ,,50+1 +,5//, +*5*0/ ,4,/ 3*ῌ Optimum Production -*5.2. ,*5.+3 +*5*0/ -4*- Optimum Production /,5.,. .,5-/3 +*5*0/ /4,+ Average -/5+1/ ,/5++* +*5*0/ -4.3 Kiambaa Division /*ῌ Optimum Production /*533, ,350.1 ,+5-./ ,4-3 3*ῌ Optimum Production 2-5,2+ 0+53-0 ,+5-./ -43* Optimum Production +135+20 +/152.+ ,+5-./ 24-3 Average +*.5.21 2-5+.+ ,+5-./ .43*

reduce yields by up to3*ῌ . In addition, the soils in Githunguri Division, ,+ , -./ in Kiambaa Division, Kiambu East District have been utilized for a long and+* , *0/ Ksh in Municipality Division (Table / ). time, and Wambugu (,**. ) stated that “over The average simulation results for the - levels of farmed” land results in reduced soil fertility and a production showed that if farmers were organized reduction in banana production. into cooperative marketing groups and sold improved traditional bananas they could earn an aver- -,. Marketing E $ ciency age gross household income of0/ , 2.2 Ksh per year The estimated average increases in household in Githunguri Division,-/ , +1/ Ksh in Municipality income of banana farmers engaged in group mar- Division, and+*. , .21 Ksh in Kiambaa Division keting in the-// districts are shown in Table for the (Table ). The results for Municipality and -/*3*levels of production (ῌῌ , , and optimum). Kiambaa Divisions are in close agreement with Under the current situation in which farmers indi- those of Mbogohet al. (,**, ), who found that, vidually sell their products to middlemen, farmers by managing bananas well, using high yielding earned an average of,, , /03 Ksh per year in varieties, and marketing as a group, income could Nzioka: Economic E$ ciency Analysis of Banana Farmers in Kiambu East District of Kenya 125

Table0 . Distribution of the Kiambu East District community: distance to the nearest daily market, to the nearest bus stop, and the most common road surface

Nearest daily Distance to the nearest Most common road market bus stop surface Distance (km)ῌῌ Distance (km) Surface ῌ ῌῌ*4/ * + *Tarmac 140 *4/ῌῌ + 04/ +4* ,43 .4+Gravel * +ῌῌ ,43 .4. -4* .43 *Earth poorly maintained 2+43 -ῌῌ .43 * /4* +* 3/43Murram track * ῍῍/ 234* +* *Others +*4/

be increased by- . . times on average in ,**+ andNew Agriculturist ( ,**3 ) indicated that many this had increased with improved Tissue Culture farmers in Kenya have to accept the prices that banana production technology to. . 2 times in ,**, buyers o # er and have little or no bargaining power. (Mbogohet al., ,**, ). Farmers also face poorly structured and ine$ cient Mbogohet al. may have obtained higher values marketing systems:23ῌ of the farming community than those obtained for Githunguri and Municipal- in Kiambu East District lives/+*ῌ km from the ity Divisions because in the simulation (group mar- nearest daily market, nearly2,ῌ of the Kiambu keting scenario) it is assumed that extension agents East District community is connected by un- and banana stakeholders would improve farmers’ maintained dirt roads and nearly30ῌ of farmers knowledge on how to better technically manage live/+*ῌ km from nearest bus stop (Table 0 ). All their traditional banana orchards so as to increase of these factors could contribute to farmers selling production and market as a group, while Mbogoh their bananas to middlemen who have means of et al used HYV bananas. Banana marketing e$ - transport or who hire trucks to transport bananas ciency improvement decreased with distance from to Nairobi. the Nairobi market because of increase in the trans- .. Conclusions and Recommendations action costs. Githunguri Division, which is located farthest from Nairobi (,+ km), had the lowest rela- .+. Conclusions tive improvement (,3, . times income increase), Kiambu East District farmers produced bananas whereas both of the other closer divisions had at an average of0*ῌ of the optimum production higher gains. level, or in other words, they were.*ῌ technically Farmers earned lower incomes in the individual ine$ cient. Similar results were obtained by scenario for several reasons that have been previ- Mbogohet al. (,**, ). If the farmers were or- ously discussed. They grow small amounts of ganized into marketing cooperatives and improved bananas (Table+ ), and these low volumes may their production through technological change in force them to sell to middlemen at lower prices. managing their traditional banana, they could in- There are also long transaction chains between the crease their marketing e$- ciency by more than farm gate and consumers and each middleman times the current average, which is also similar to takes proﬁt at each level before bananas reach the results of Mbogohet al. (,**, ). consumers. Farmers in the- divisions may also not Age, education level, and gender appeared to have access to appropriate and timely market infor- have an e#$ ect on the technical ine ciency of mation (Mukhebi,,**. ). Githunguri farmers sold banana farmers in Kiambu East District. In gener- their bananas at+1, Ksh per bunch, compared to al, banana farmers were female, older, and had low +2*Ksh in Municipality and ,+0 Ksh in Kiambaa. levels of education. These factors could have con- These prices depended on the type of buyer and the tributed to the farmers’ ability to access technology perceived quality, which was determined by eye. on HYVs because they were either not aware or not The bananas are sold in bunches, not by weight. interested in the technology. 126 J. Dev. Sus. Agr.., ( )

The volume of banana production by individual knowledge dissemination should be clarified, so as farmers appeared to have an e# ect on marketing to enable the farmers to improve their banana e$ ciency of banana farmers. Since the farmers production and marketing e$ ciency. were not organized into marketing groups, they Acknowledgements lacked bargaining power, which led to low marketing e$ ciency. Farmers may have relied on middle- Foremost, I wish to acknowledge the tireless men for marketing information, which could have e# orts of Professor Sushuke Matsushita of Tsukuba led to the varied and low banana prices observed University whose guidance, inspiration, and en- and also to low marketing e$ ciency. The poor couragement were paramount to the success of this infrastructure in Kiambu East District also ap- study. I wish to thank Professor Hiroshi Gemma peared to have an e#$ ect on marketing e ciency of of University of Tsukuba for providing valuable banana farmers. insights on production and processing of bananas. I am grateful to Japanese International Coopera- .,. Recommendations tion Agency (JICA) for financial support, which Banana research institutions should focus on enabled me to study at the University of Tsukuba building the technical knowledge of extension pro- and conduct this study. I also wish to thank Ms viders, which will in turn help banana farmers Sachiyo Akiyama and Ms Makiko Nakano both of improve production. There is a great need for Japanese International Cooperation Centre (JICE) collaboration between extension agents and the pri- and Mr. Aizawa Eishi of JICA for their continuous vate sector and research institutes to provide the encouragement and support during the period of best services to farmers. The government should writing this paper. I appreciate Ms Shinoda provide subsidies to facilitate farmers’ access to Kimiko of University of Tsukuba for her e# orts in HYV banana plants and other inputs. There is also ensuring that I had the necessary materials and a need to establish a micro-credit facility for schedules. Finally, I thank the sta# of Kiambu farmers to enable them to acquire the necessary East District who helped collect the data. inputs. References If Kiambu East District farmers were organized into marketing groups, they could increase their Acharya S.S. and Mackey M.G.A.,,**2 . Socio-Economic bargaining power and hence improve their house- Impact Assessment of the Tissue Culture Banana In- dustry in Kenya. Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation hold incomes. This could empower women in rural International (AHBFI). Nairobi, Kenya; Johan- areas because other cash crops are considered to be nesburg, South Africa; Washington DC, USA. http:// the men’s source of income. Empowering women www.africaharvest.org/files/tcBanana.pdf; accessed +0 ,**3 will lead to rural development because women on October . Colman, D. and Young T.,,**, . Markets and prices in less work extensively in agricultural production in rural developed countries. Cambridge University Press, UK: areas. /*ῌ /+, /- and 0+ . The government should promote banana produc- District Agricultural O$ ce, ,**2 . Kiambu East District tion and marketing by regulating quality and stand- Annual Report,,**2 .Kiambu East District Profile and ards. It should also provide infrastructure, commu- Crop situation, Ministry of Agriculture, Kiambu, Kenya. nication, and information to facilitate marketing. Farell M.J.,+3/1 . The Measurement of Productive E $ cien- However, government assistance should be short cy. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A term, whereas the public-private sector partnership (General), Vol.+,* , No. - ( +3/1 ). Published by: should be strengthened in the long run. Farmers Blackwell Publishing for the Royal Statistical Society: ,/-ῌ ,3*. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ ,-.-+** ; ac- could improve household incomes if they were cessed on+3 November ,**3 . trained on indigenous processing technologies so as Kimenyi, E., Kenyan Extension Services. A paper presented to add value to their bananas at the farm level. at the JICA training program on Rural Development Such training and processing could create employ- by Songa Mbele Community Development Initiative ,**2 ment for rural women and youth and in turn retain approach in Nairobi, . Kinyua, H.,,**2 a. Transformed Banana Value Chain- youth in rural areas. Techno Serve. http://www.banana,**2 .com/cms/ In a future study the role of extension agents in Nzioka: Economic E$ ciency Analysis of Banana Farmers in Kiambu East District of Kenya 127

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