Assessment of factors influencing smallholder farmers adoption of mushroom for livelihood diversification in Western Kenya

Abstract

Poverty is a critical issue in developing countries. It has become almost impossible to carry out any profitable agricultural production as a means of livelihood diversification in areas with small land acreage. Therefore, there is need to identify enterprises that can be incorporated into small holder farmers' production processes. This study assessed the factors that influence small holder farmers' adoption of mushroom for livelihood diversification from a sample of 240 smallholder farmers in Vihiga County in Western Kenya. Both descriptive methods and a binomial logit model were applied in the analysis. Results indicate that about three quarters of the farmers in the area were aware of mushroom production in the area and four fifth of them were willing to engage in mushroom production as a livelihood diversification option. Empirical results indicated that marital status, formal education, group membership, consumption of mushroom, availability of market for mushroom in the area, previous involvement/experience in mushroom production and total land acreage had a positive effect on farmers' awareness of mushroom production. Age, gender, awareness level, consumption of mushroom and total land available had a positive effect on the farmers' willingness to engage in mushroom production.

Ethnomycological Knowledge of Three Ethnic Groups in Ethiopia

“…These criteria are in line with [31,34]. The oldest accounts of this practice among tribes in developing countries have been putatively reflected by different authors [67][68][69][70]. Beside these criteria, in rural areas of Ethiopia, the local people also use the presence or absence of a strong bad smell [34] to determine the edibility of mushrooms.…”

Priority Factors in The Development of Sustainable Oyster Mushroom Agribusiness

“…The implementation of oyster mushroom agribusiness in Indonesia requires strengthening the adoption of cultivation technology and post-harvest processing, institution strengthening, management optimization, and the use of production factors (Mabuza et al 2012;Iriantinah, 2014;Li and Hu, 2014;Febrianda and Tokuda, 2017). Farmers' willingness to starting oyster mushroom agribusiness is influenced by marital status, formal education, farmer group membership, mushroom consumption level, market availability, farming experience, and land area (Ongoche et al 2017).…”

“…Some researches related to the development strategy for oyster mushroom agribusiness have been carried out by researchers (Iriantinah, 2014;Li and Hu, 2014;Dimyati and Astarina, 2016;Fatria, 2017;Febrianda and Tokuda, 2017;Ongoche et al 2017). The purpose of this research is to determine priority factors in the development of sustainable oyster mushroom agribusiness with OPEFB as the growing media.…”