Determinants of Participation in Contract Farming among Smallholder Sorghum Farmers in Bondo Sub-County

Aims: This paper analyzed the socioeconomic and institution factors influencing participation in sorghum contract farming by smallholder farmers in Bondo, siaya county, Kenya. The study results are anticipated to encourage smallholder farmers to participate in sorghum commercialization rather than producing for subsistence.

Study Design: The study applied quantitative research design to determine factors that influences participation in sorghum contract farming by smallholder farmers.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Bondo Siaya county Kenya. Targeted group were smallholder farmers producing sorghum either as contracted or non-contracted. The data was collected on sorghum production during 2020/2021 production year.

Methodology: A multistage sampling technique was used to sample 135 non-contracted and 105 contracted smallholder sorghum farmers for the study. The data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire which was pretest prior to actual data collection. Data collected was analyzed using t-statistics and chi-squire for the descriptive statistics. While econometric analysis applied logistic regression model to determine factors influencing smallholder farmers’ participation in sorghum contract farming.

Results: Findings revealed that post-primary education level (β = 0.215; P = 0.04) , age (
β = 0.005; P = 0.00) , gender (
β = 0.144; P = 0.02) , number of active household members (
β = 0.090; P = 0.03) , group membership(
β = 0.188; P = 0.00) , distance to the nearest main road in walking minutes (
β = 0.021; P = 0.00) , ownership of bicycle (
β = 0.210; P = 0.00) and ownership of oxen (
β = 0.238; P = 0.00) positively influence participation in sorghum contract farming. In contrarily, distance to the nearest extension agent office negatively influence participation in sorghum contract farming (
β = 0.004; P = 0.01) .

Conclusion: The results suggest the need to increase access to extension services, implement policies for empowering women and youths to engage in contract farming, sensitize farmers to form groups to enhance working collectively to acquire input and output market. National and county governments should invest in physical infrastructure, such as roads, to improve access to agricultural information on new interventions.