Organic farming in the kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya

Summary

The objective of the study was to explore the socio-economic conditions that determine participation in organic agriculture and the economic impacts of participation, especially on income in Kibera slum, Kenya. A multi-stage random sampling procedure was used to select a total of 80 respondents from the study area. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to describe socio-economic and institutional characteristics of the respondents which revealed that, there was significant mean difference regarding age, years of experience in organic farming, household labour, size of organic plots, number of organic plots, and income from organic farming. A Logit model was employed to identify factors influencing households’ participation in organic farming. The result of the model showed that gender, age of farming household, years of organic farming, others in organic farming, access to credit and membership of a farmer group were the statistically significant factors influencing participation in organic farming. On the other hand, a multiple linear regression model was used to identify the variables that contributed to the share of income from farming. From the 12 explanatory variables included in the model, organic farming activity, size of organic farm and shares of sales from total production were found to be significant variables contributing positively to the share of income from farming, while gender of the household head, number of organic plots and number of visits/training from NGOs influences it significantly and negatively. Descriptive statistics in the form of a frequency table was used to analyse the data on the major limitations to participation in organic farming. Ignorance and lack of land for organic farming were the main constraints that affected participants in urban organic farming. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are coming up with more viable and sustainable ways in undertaking organic farming in informal settlements and these are being taught to farmers but their efforts are insufficient. There is the need for actors on the national and international levels to do more to help the people living in informal areas to capitalize on their experiences and to integrate organic farming in these areas.