Globally, arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) infections continue to pose substantial threats to public health and economic development, especially in developing countries. In Kenya, although arboviral diseases (ADs) are largely endemic, little is known about the factors influencing livestock farmers’ knowledge, beliefs, and management (KBM) of the three major ADs: Rift Valley fever (RVF), dengue fever and chikungunya fever. This study evaluates the drivers of livestock farmers’ KBM of ADs from a sample of 629 respondents selected using a three-stage sampling procedure in Kenya’s three hotspot counties of Baringo, Kwale, and Kilifi. A multivariate fractional probit model was used to assess the factors influencing the intensity of KBM. Only a quarter of the farmers had any knowledge of ADs while over four-fifths of them could not manage any of the three diseases. Access to information (experience and awareness), income, education, religion, and distance to a health facility considerably influenced the intensity of farmers’ KBM of ADs in Kenya. Thus, initiatives geared towards improving access to information through massive awareness campaigns are necessary to mitigate behavioral barriers in ADs management among rural communities in Kenya.

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Adoption of agricultural innovations is perceived as a key avenue for poverty reduction and improved food and nutritional security in developing countries. The International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) has developed and implemented a set of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies in several sub-Saharan African countries aimed at controlling mango infesting fruit flies (Bactrocera dorsalis). Although positive returns from the use of fruit fly IPM have already been documented, the impact of these technologies on food security is not well understood. This study evaluated the impact of the IPM strategy on food security with the help of a two-wave panel household survey data collected in Machakos County in Kenya. A difference-in-difference model was fitted to the data of a randomly selected sample of 600 mango growing households. A seven-day recall was used to elicit per capita calorie intake, while a 30-day recall was used to measure household dietary diversity. A before-and-after intervention and withand-without (treatment and control) study design was utilized. The regression estimates indicate that fruit fly IPM use had a positive impact on per capita calorie intake but no significant effect on Household Dietary Diversity Index (HDDI) in comparison with the IPM non-users. This suggests that farmers using the fruit fly IPM technology benefit from income gains, and higher incomes improve the quantity of food consumed but not the diversity of the foods. This could be explained by a large share of the expenditure on food that was devoted to cereal staples such as maize, wheat, and rice as reported during the qualitative study. Other factors that had an effect on per capita calorie include the level of farm income, access to the extension services, wealth category and distance to agricultural input market and household size. This study recommends wider dissemination and upscaling of the fruit fly IPM strategy in mango producing regions to facilitate broader impacts on household-level food security.

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