Kenyan Vegetable Farmers' IPM adoption: barriers and impacts

• Main Author: O'Reilly, Ryan Keefe
• Other Authors: Agricultural and Applied Economics
• Format: Others
• Published: Virginia Tech 2020
• Subjects: agricultural development; technology adoption; Kenyan agriculture; Kenyan horticulture; Integrated Pest Management; Cumulative Prospect Theory; poverty traps
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/99453

This thesis analyzes factors affecting adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) techniques by Kenyan vegetable farmers, including the role of their risk preferences. It also analyzes factors affecting their pesticide applications and expenditures. A survey was administered to 450 Kenyan vegetable growers to identify their pest management practices, and a behavioral experiment was run to elicit their risk preferences utilizing. Cumulative Prospect Theory. Loss aversion was found to be correlated with higher likelihood of IPM adoption while risk aversion was associated with higher pesticide application rates and expenditures. The influence of IPM adoption on pesticide use differed by IPM technique. === Master of Science === Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques can improve small holder farmers' livelihoods by lowering production costs and decreasing dependence on chemical pesticides. Even though some IPM techniques have been available to Kenyan vegetable farmers since the 1990's, IPM adoption remains relatively low while chemical pesticide use remains high. A farm-household survey and behavioral experiment were conducted to identify factors that influence farmer decisions to adopt IPM and to apply pesticides. Factors that influence IPM adoption were found to differ from those that influence pesticide decisions. Furthermore, IPM adoption by Kenyan farmers does not decrease use of chemical pesticides for all IPM techniques.