Impact of climate-smart maize varieties on household income among smallholder farmers in Kenya: The case of Embu County

Abstract

Variability in climate and debility in soil fertility affect agrarian production, especially in subSaharan Africa, and thus threaten food security. This has prompted the seed sector to introduce various varieties of climate-smart maize in Kenya and release them in the market. In contrast, there is little experiential insight into how the adoption of these varieties by small-scale farmers affects their household income. This paper used cross-sectional data to evaluate the implications of climatesmart maize varieties on small-scale farmers’ household income in Embu County in Kenya. The endogenous switching regression model was used to estimate the influence of climate-smart maize adoption on household income. Based on survey data obtained from 550 maize farmers in Embu County, the results show that age, education, land under climate-smart maize varieties, and distance to the market positively influenced the income level of the adopters. The findings further reveal that the decision to adopt the climate-smart maize varieties had a significant positive effect of about 60% on farmers’ household income. It therefore can be concluded from the results that the adopters would gain more from technology adoption. These results recommend policies that stimulate the adoption of current climate-smart varieties, with an emphasis on adoption by youths, to create more jobs and increase household income to reduce poverty among smallholder farmers in Kenya