Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Agroforestry Tree and Shrub Species Diversity on Small-Scale Farms in Kisumu County, Kenya

Abstract

Kenya is one of the developing countries experiencing rise in demand for arable land and tree products. This has led to the scarcity of available land for productive agriculture. To improve this situation, agroforestry technologies have been assimilated in many regions in Kenya. However, at the local level in Kisumu County, agroforestry technologies are yet to be adopted effectively for agrobiodiversity improvement. This study therefore sought to determine the socio-economic factors influencing the diversity of tree and shrub species of agroforestry on the small-scale farms in Kisumu West Sub-county. Descriptive research was undertaken and respondents were selected through proportionate stratified random sampling. Use of questionnaire instruments together with Key Informant Interviews were employed to 404 household heads and forest officers respectively in Kisumu West Sub-county. Inventory data of tree species was conducted on each of the sampled farm plots and together with the questionnaire data; Microsoft Excel and SPSS software were used for exploratory statistics, tree diversity measurement, chi-square and regression analysis tests. Diversity of agroforestry tree species was analysed using Shannon-Wiener Index. The results showed that the most abundant tree species were Eucalyptus spp and Grevillea robusta. The overall Shannon-Wiener Index was 1.9311 which was regarded as very low. In the study, there was a significant positive relationship between gender, level of education completed by household head, household size and the species diversity. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between farm size and species diversity. The study recommends that information on socio-cultural factors such as education and gender, in addition to economic factors such as the farm size, that influence diversity should be a priority to the development partners and even to the local communities