Abstract
Cassava commercialization is a concept that has been used by many development practitioners because of its possible strategic role in transforming livelihoods of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, including Siaya and Kilifi Counties in Kenya. This concept can easily be implemented when the levels of commercialization is known. However, empirical evidence reveals little information on the levels of cassava commercialization amongst smallholder farmers in these counties. Thus effective policy interventions on cassava commercialization for these farmers are difficult to implement, since there is no proper understanding of their levels of cassava commercialization. Therefore the main objective of this paper was to characterize levels of cassava commercialization among smallholder farmers. Factors influencing cassava commercialization were also evaluated. The data was collected from 381 farm households in Siaya and Kilifi Counties (Kenya).This data was used to calculate the Household Commercialization Index (HCI) and Value Addition Indices (VAI) which were then integrated to form the Commercialization Index (CI). This integrated index formed the basis for categorizing the levels of commercialization. A multinomial regression model was used to evaluate factors that affect levels of commercialization. The results obtained revealed that majority of smallholder farmers’ operate at low and medium categories with very few of them at high level. Distance to the market, cassava acreage, schooling years, gender and marketing costs were the key determinants of the levels of commercialization. In order to promote high level commercialization, the study recommends developing policies that enhance formal education among farmers, optimal usage of land and minimization of transportation costs through infrastructural development. Key words: Commercialization, cassava, smallholder farmers, value addition, market participation.
Highlights
In sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural sector is one of the key sectors that have contributed to rural development
This paper contributes to literature on cassava commercialization by contextualizing the concept as value addition and market participation, recognizes the fact that value added cassava products provide tremendous market opportunities through diversification, further promoting commercialization
Different levels of commercialization were categorized using commercialization index which was developed from household commercialization index and value addition index
Summary
In sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural sector is one of the key sectors that have contributed to rural development. One of the major features of agriculture in the developing world is that farming is mainly oriented towards small scale This is whereby production is mainly for household consumption with extra output for smallscale commercial purpose. In sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers are the majority of the population and they contribute enormously towards agricultural production. They account for approximately 75% of sub-Saharan Africans’ land (Lowder et al, 2016). Because of agriculture’s comparative advantage to other sectors much focus has been drawn towards transforming the sector through entrepreneurial activities such as commercialization This concept has gradually gained prominence especially among smallholder farmers and to a greater extent replacing subsistence farming (Wright, 2009). The overriding need for poverty reduction has presented cassava production and commercialization as a target for many interventions which led to the development of National Policy on Cassava (MOA, 2007)
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