Influence of Social Cultural Factors on Sweet Potato Production among Agro-Pastoralists in Samburu County, Kenya

Abstract

The prevailing socio-cultural practices have the power to influence adoption of agricultural technology. Sweet potato is one of the world’s highest yielding crops in terms of production per unit area, exceeding that of a major cereal like rice. The roots and leaves of sweet potatoes are consumed while its vines are used as animal feed in many parts of the world, yet it remains a survival crop which people eat, when they are starving. The main problem amongst agro-pastoralists is low production of the sweet potatoes. T he aim of the study was to assess influence of social cultural factors on sweet potato production among agro-pastoralists in Samburu. Household-level surveys were conducted to obtain data from 100 agro-pastoralists purposively selected. Qualitative data were obtained through Focus Group Discussion and Key Informant Interviews. Data was analyzed using d escriptive statistics such as percentages and frequency distributions. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data. The study found that agro-pastoralists had low literacy level. Overall majority of the agro-pastoralists at 89 percent strongly disagreed that community tradition was a hindrance to sweet potato production. The study demonstrated that tradition was not a barrier to the production of sweet potato. About 49 percent of them strongly disagreed and 45 percent also disagreed that production of sweet potatoes is associated with poor persons. Almost 68 percent of the respondents strongly disagreed, that they have been looked down because of cultivating sweet potatoes, while 27 percent of them indicated that they disagreed with the same statement. The results indicated that social-cultural factors do not hinder sweet potato production by agro-pastoralists. In conclusion selected social-cultural factors do not prevent sweet potato production by agro-pastoralists. On recommendation, more studies need to done on commercialization of sweet potato cultivation. Due to low level of education of the respondents, practical demonstrations are a requirement to be considered.