Productivity and profitability in organic and conventional farming systems in Kenya

Since organic farming systems have some positive significant impacts on yield and profitability, some of the crops grown under organic farming systems should be promoted among small scale producers as a way of improving their livelihoods. Murang’a, Kirinyaga and Machakos counties, together with other counties where organic farming is practiced, should consider promoting organic systems as an alternative way of improving incomes. It should be noted that farmers take management decisions not only to maximize yield, but also based on a variety of factors such as market demand, cost of production and ease of management (Shennan et al., 2017). Yield maximization becomes less important when considering overall production factors, i.e. if a crop is grown primarily for rotation value or as part of a diverse product supply for direct marketing avenues. The consideration of other factors should therefore be included in analyses, to help farmers make the right farm management choices.

5.1.2 Sustainability performance of organic and conventional smallholder farms in Kenya

The comparative assessment of the sustainability performance of organic and conventional farming systems in Murang’a, Kirinyaga and Machakos counties in Kenya covered four sustainability dimensions. On-farm characteristics such as soil types, cropping systems and scale were similar for both management systems (Shennan et al., 2017). This made it possible to compare the two systems.

The results revealed that although organic initiatives performed better than conventional farms for some practices at the sub-theme and indicator level, there remains room for improvements in all four sustainability dimensions.

For example, in both the ‘environmental integrity’ and ‘economic resilience’ dimensions, organic farms had higher mean scores for 10 out of the 14 sub-themes, and in the ‘governance’ dimension, for 11 of the 14 sub-themes. Yet in the ‘social well-being’ dimension, only 5 of the 16 sub-themes had higher mean scores in organic than conventional farms. In the sub-theme employment relations,

for example, the degree of goal achievement scores was significantly different and higher for conventional systems as compared to organic interventions.

For Kirinyaga County, the results are confirmed by the existence of organic certified farms among the sampled organic farms. Certification standards and the existence of an export-orientated marketing system with premiums has led farmers to manage their farms in line with the set organic standards. Non-compliance leads to sanctions imposed on farmers and a loss of revenue for the period of non-conformity. In Murang’a County, the average sub-themes scores under governance, environmental integrity, economic resilience and social well-being were higher in organic farms than in conventional ones. In this county most of the organic farms are non-certified and have no organized organic market and therefore sell at the same prices as conventional. In Machakos, the sub-theme scores for governance, economic resilience and social well-being were higher in conventional farms than organic ones. In this county, the number of organic farmers had been dropping, as organic farmer groups were no longer vibrant as they were before 2010. The farmer groups that was once organic certified has shrunk in size with only a small group of farmers remaining (one reason is the inability to recruit younger members as elderly ones retire from farming).

Some of the indicators were positively significant for organic farming systems. The indicators with positive significance should be promoted and enhanced. The low indicator and sub-theme scores should be addressed to improve farming practices. For example, conventional farms need to know the correct fertilizer requirements, and how to properly use herbicides and pesticides including the need to observe pre-harvest intervals to ensure safe and nutritious foods. Likewise, organic farms need to understand the necessity, for example, of improving soils through use of manure. The study found that organic farmers do use some amounts of artificial fertilizer and plant protection products, therefore it is imperative that all Kenyan farmers improve their knowledge regarding the proper use of external farm inputs.

The study examined the use of mineral nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizers by farmers. In the sustainability assessment, this has impacts in the sub-themes soil quality, land degradation, ecosystem diversity, water quality, air quality, and energy use (Figure 5.1-1 and Figure 5.1-2). The use of the mineral nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers by farmers was, lower on organic farms than on conventional ones.

Figure 5.1-1: Mineral N usage in terms of Kg/ha is computed based on the fertilizer types and quantities entered by the enumerators.

Figure 5.1-2: Mineral P usage in terms of Kg/ha is computed based on the fertilizer types and quantities entered by the enumerators

Organic farmers, both certified and non-certified, require regular training and extension support.

Organic farms in Kirinyaga County were better in terms of sustainability scores than in the other counties. In Kirinyaga a good number of the organic farms were organic certified. The existence of a traceability system and better prices (premiums) seems to have encouraged the adherence to organic practices and standards in Kirinyaga County. Despite the constraints and potential for improvement of the SMART-Farm Tool approach, it gives a prompt way to bench-mark farms across farm types

and regions at the dimension, theme, and sub-theme levels. Sustainability assessment tools offer support to decision-makers, policy, and development experts, and provide guidance to farmers as to how they may best manage their resources.

5.1.3 Farmers’ perceptions of intervention measures to address sustainability gaps in Kenya

The sustainability assessment of the farms and subsequent farmer feedback workshops revealed some of the constraints facing farmers and discussed some of the intervention measures that farmers perceive would improve the sustainability (including profitability) of their farms. In these fora, the organic and conventional farmers explained that many of the farming decisions they take are constrained by the challenges they face and their inability to overcome them. Summarized, the constraints include limitations to technical and physical inputs (e.g. lack of irrigation systems and a high reliance on rain-fed agriculture, and lack of soil testing and low soil quality leading to low yields); market-related challenges (e.g. low and fluctuating prices, exploitation by intermediaries/brokers and lack of target or alternative markets); inadequate knowledge and skills (e.g. limited access to information and capacity building programs, lack of know-how on food safety issues, chemical usage, storage, spraying, and lack of proper record keeping); limited institutional support (e.g. poor infrastructure such as poor road networks to markets); and small farm sizes.

External factors faced by organic farmers included low levels of consumer awareness of organic farm products, limited availability of organic inputs, and insufficient support to enable them to certify themselves as organic producers. It is still the case that organic markets in Kenya are mostly found in Nairobi and Mombasa upmarket suburbs, frequented mainly by expatriates, while the organic producers are in the rural areas (Kledal, 2009). Thus there is a need to increase public awareness of organic products and their health benefits in the country. The market outlets include supermarkets, specialized organic shops, organic restaurants, organic farmers, open-air markets, and basket delivery systems to consumers (Kledal, 2009). These market channels could be expanded further to include niche and institutional markets (such as schools, hospitals). Organic farmers working in groups can develop collection points and organize and advertise market days to get the end consumers to buy directly from them. The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement serves as a direct-marketing model that could be taken up in Kenya (Hayden & Buck, 2012).

The intervention areas and strategies detailed in Chapter 4 offer opportunities to farmers that can be implemented to improve the sustainability of their farms. These include: strategies for biodiversity

keeping (economic); strategies of capacity development and public health and safety measures (social well-being); and strategies of leadership, community welfare, and financial accountability (governance).

5.2 Synthesis summary of the objectives/ Chapters

The analysis of the data from the productivity and profitability show that organic can be productive and profitable for some crops and more sustainable in different sustainability dimensions, subthemes and indicators yet a few farmers practicing it. In the farmers workshops farmers have list a good number of constraints from production challenges to marketing. Additionally with the low sustainability scores, the improvement measures need to be prioritized to the main factors that would catalyze the change process to boost and make organic farming the go to system by farmers.

In the sustainability assessment farmers generally did well on the environmental, economic and governance dimension but poorly in the social dimensions. Addressing these issues might solve a good number of the challenges farmers face. For example by working together in groups farmers will be able to consolidate farm products and market their product by eliminating middle men who take advantage and offer low prices.

Another area is as build capacity of farmers’ awareness creation on the cost of production is necessary During data collection in the productivity and profitability aspects the farmer were trained on record keeping and basic accounting aspects (sales, costs, and profits calculations) to know where their expenses were incurred. Reducing the cost of production can improve farm returns and farmers knowledge about which areas to reduce costs one area for inclusion in intensive training program.

In my study a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the three counties (Kirinyaga, Murang’a and Machakos) in Kenya. Productivity and profitability quantitative data collection while sustainability and farmer perceptions used both qualitative (scores, ratings and scale) and qualitative methods. The case studies selected give a good picture of organic farming in Kenya up to a certain point since the sector is mostly dominated by NGOs who take the lead in organizing and sourcing for markets. NGOs can only operationalize their activities up to a certain point depending on financing and objectives. A case in point are the farmers in Kithimani in Yatta sub-county who were introduced to organic farming and were trained and certified through a NGOs but after the end of the program and certification period the farmers unable to raise the required capital to renew the organic certification. The group disintegrated and only a few of the farmers remained selling as organic non-certified.

Documentation of the study gives important insights into organic activities in Kenya and provides the supporting evidence to enable policy makers make informed policy registration for the sector.

Additionally work by Kamau et al, 2018 merged together will strengthen the sectors evidence as the study on the typology of organic farmers gives the different dimensions of organic farmers. The agro ecological practices and emerging trends to promote the sector is not only left to the private sector but added to the public extension services. Farmers have tend to approach public and frontline extension staff first for answers on their farming bottlenecks or agrovets which are established at local level.

Organic farming has a place in Kenya and can be a competitive options for farmers. The higher and almost similar yields to conventional farming, better and also almost similar scores in the sustainability assessment all point to engaging in the sector. The challenges faced by organic farmers if addressed by policy actors can go a long way in improving the livelihoods of farmers as it also improve on the environment. Also other benefits directly and indirectly such as health and nutritional benefits accrue from use of the system (Note not documented in this study but mentioned by a good number of non-certified farmers in Murang’a).