Effects of Communication Barriers on Adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies in Kenya: A Case of Agro-pastoralists in West Pokot County

Abstract

Over the last two decades, agricultural researchers have been developing technology-based systems to aid farmers in various aspects of farming. However, information about these agricultural research technologies has not been effectively disseminated to farmers, thus, low uptake of agricultural technologies among farmers. In Kenya, one of the major factors identified to contribute to the low uptake of agricultural technologies among farmers is communication barriers among agricultural researchers, policy makers, value chain actors, and farmers concerning the availability, applicability, and how to adopt the agricultural technologies for high production. The general objective of this study, therefore, was to explore how barriers to communication influenced the uptake of climate-smart technologies among farmers in West Pokot County, Kenya. The study employed a Pragmatism approach, specifically sequential QUAN→QUAL mixed method. The target population of the study looked at the entire group of objects having common observable characteristics and a population that tends to have a wide geographical spread but not the total or universal population. The population sample was therefore based on practice, the expense of data collection, and the need to have sufficient statistical power, precision level, the level of confidence of risk, and the variability degree in the attributes being measured. This sample size of farmers from West Pokot who participated in this study, therefore, was 494 farmers and 29 selected key informants from various agricultural institutions. Procedures of sampling were used at a characteristic level of a material specification or task list. Cluster random sampling and purposive sampling methods were used to select the respondents for the study. Farmers were grouped into four clusters based on the four Sub-Counties of West Pokot County. The selected key informants were assumed to have adequate experience in matters communication of agricultural information towards successful uptake of climate-smart agriculture in West Pokot County. The administration of questions guided by questionnaires through an online data kit app and conducting of in-depth interviews guides. Data collected through questionnaires was quantitative (closed-ended) with a few qualitative (open-ended) questions. One of the results showed that major barriers are the language barrier, poor road network, and poor telecommunications infrastructure.