Determinants of Demand for Sweet Potatoes at the Farm, Retail and Wholesale Markets in Kenya

Mohamed Suleiman Mukras,Gideon Momanyi,Odondo Juma Alphonce

doi:10.13189/aeb.2013.010211

Abstract

Despite the potential of sweet potato in helping to meet Kenya’s food needs and poverty reduction through income generation, detailed information on sweet potato demand relations is unavailable to enable the traders plan their production and marketing activities. Thus, the study examined determinants of demand for sweet potatoes in Kenya with specific reference to Rachuonyo south district and its key market outlets. Out of 166 commercial farmers, fifty five wholesalers and an infinite number of retailers, one hundred and sixteen commercial farmers were selected using simple random sampling technique while 384 retailers were purposively selected. The 55 wholesalers were also included in the sample. Primary data were collected using questionnaires while secondary data were from respondents’ records. ANOVA indicated that demand for sweet potatoes varied significantly across the markets (F = 133.261, p = 0.000), due to differences in magnitude of effects of the independent factors on demand. The study results suggest the need for market segmentation by retailers and directing part of retail purchases to the markets dominated by low income groups, attitude change through awareness creation, financial empowerment of the sellers and selling varieties of sweet potatoes particularly those that are highly preferred by the final consumers.

Highlights

Sweet potato is one of the mankind’s high yielding crops with higher food value and total production per unit area than other staple food crops such as sorghum, maize, millet and rice
Sweet potato serves as a staple diet in many parts of Uganda, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Angola, Burundi and Kenya [3]
This study focused on Rachuonyo south district where sweet potato production, processing and marketing were common

Summary

Introduction

Sweet potato is one of the mankind’s high yielding crops with higher food value and total production per unit area than other staple food crops such as sorghum, maize, millet and rice. It is the world’s seventh most important food crop after wheat, rice, maize, barley and cassava [8], [31], [33]. The economic importance of sweet potato among all food crops is exceeded only by cereals (wheat, rice, maize and barley) [33]. Nigeria, Indonesia and Vietnam which follow china in production each harvest about 2.5 million tons of Sweet potatoes annually [8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion