Determinants of the intensity of adoption of climate-smart horticulture practices in Taita-Taveta County, Kenya

Horticulture is an important sub-sector of the Kenyan economy that contributes to food and nutrition security as well as a source of income to small-scale farmers. However, the sub-sector is largely affected by climate variability. Although various efforts have been initiated towards climate-smart horticulture (CSH) practices to reduce the challenges, most farmers have not adopted the practices and the reasons for this are not comprehensively documented. This study sought to address this knowledge gap by analyzing the determinants of the intensity of adoption of CSH practices in Taita-Taveta County in Kenya. The study used primary data from 403 randomly selected farmers who grow green grams and tomatoes. Negative binomial regression model was applied to analyze the determinants of the number of CSH practices adopted. Results show that the main CSH practices adopted were crop rotation, well-adapted seed varieties, live barriers to prevent soil erosion and organic manure. The extent of adoption of CSH practices varied greatly in the three locations due to their geographical and agro-ecological differences. Mobile phone use on CSH, access to agricultural extension services, awareness of CSH and trust on information relayed through the mobile phones increased the intensity of adoption of the identified CSH practices by 24%, 17%, 54% and 12%, respectively. However, climate change awareness and increase in farm size under crop reduced the intensity of adoption of CSH practices by 29% and 4%, respectively. The intensity of adoption of CSH practices was positively affected by mobile phone use, education level, gender, trust and CSH awareness. However, farm size and climate change awareness were found to negatively affect the intensity of adoption of CSH practices. These findings point to the need for location-specific CSH practices and credible climate-smart agriculture (CSA) information. Institutional support services such as agricultural extension, technical skills and mobile phone services should be packaged innovatively to meet the specific requirements of horticulture farmers in different crop enterprises and agro-ecological conditions rather than a one-size fits all approach.