Identification of Best Practices to Ensure Market Access for the Smallholder Farmers in Kenya
The greatest challenge to small holder farmers in Africa is lack of markets although new developments point to linking them to specific markets. Since linking farmers to markets in Kenyan agriculture is a relatively new phenomenon both at the level of government and the NGO/donor, it has not been established what works and what does not. Secondly, there is inadequate information and documentation on the nature of linkages of farmers to markets both in the public and private sector. The objective of the study was therefore to identify the different practices through which successful small holder farmers have gained access to remunerative markets. Based on a FAO nomenclature on the various approaches that small holder farmers' access markets globally, a market research was done in 2010 where a total sample of twenty farmers was selected from eight districts in Kenya. After further screening, only seven farmers meeting the FAO criteria were interviewed. The commodities that were considered were eggs, milk, avocado fruit, meat, horticultural produce, summer flowers, essential oils and bananas. Results showed that there were five best practices identified contributing to market access for small holder farmers: Production (adequate volume) Group's development dynamics (organized groups) Marketing (consistent supply) Marketing institutions (collaboration with marketing institutions) and Business development services (providing services to producers) It was concluded that implementing what is perceived as the best practices built self confidence, reduced perception of risk and through the market exposure, farmers acquired a set of new life skills: business, management, human relations and organization.