Access to markets is one important strategy which can assist smallholder farmers to move out of poverty. Collective action through farmers' groups has been identified as a strategy to improve the participation of farmers in markets. This study analyzes the determinants of participation and intensity of participation of collective action in production and marketing of avocado in Kenya. Group participation and the intensity were modelled as a binary choice decision and analyzed using logit models. Interviews were conducted with 301 farmers in avocado production zones in Kenya. The result showed that age, education, gender and perceptions on knowledge and improved technology influence farmers' decision to participate in group activities. Occupation, area of residence and farmers' perception on knowledge and improved technology use, and economic benefits had a significant influence on the intensity of participation. We conclude that it is crucial to educate farmers through trainings, workshops and seminars before group formation in order to ensure that they understand the importance and impacts of collective action. Finally, development practitioners and government organizations which intend to intervene through farmers' groups should understand farmers' perceptions and hence expectations from the groups.

Nutrition knowledge is an important driver of household dietary diversity that can be improved through access to nutrition information. However, in many rural areas, the formal flow of nutrition information is limited, although social networks could play an important role as an informal source of such information. This paper evaluates the effect of nutrition information networks on household dietary diversity in Nyamira and Kisii counties in Kenya. The paper employs a Poisson regression model on a sample of 462 farmers selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. The results show that the average household dietary diversity of an individual’s network (a proxy for social networks) had a positive and significant effect on the dietary diversity of the individual, implying that social networks have a positive effect on household dietary diversity. Moreover, the average education of an individual’s network, along with household size, wealth status and farm size, had positive significant effects on household dietary diversity. These results imply that farmers’ social networks could be used as a complementary tool for the effective delivery of nutrition education targeting the enhancement of nutritional quality.

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Smallholder farmers in developing countries are vulnerable to idiosyncratic and covariate risks. The risks affect their welfare through the shocks they impose on income, assets, health and food supply. To cope with these shocks, smallholder farmers have extensively relied on informal risk management strategies such as social networks, due to the poorly developed or missing formal insurance markets. Social networks play a risk-sharing role through transfers (loans and gifts) within the networks. This paper evaluates the factors influencing the formation of financial and non-financial networks as informal insurance strategies, using cross-sectional data collected from 815 households in Kenya and analysed using a dyadic linear probability model. Results show that kinship, geographical proximity, education and age are important determinants of both financial and non-financial links. Health shock is also correlated with the formation of financial links. The findings suggest that financial links play a risk-sharing role when farmers are faced with health shocks. The paper concludes that financial networks act as insurance against idiosyncratic health shocks.

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