The Impact of “Grow to Sell” Agricultural Extension on Smallholder Horticulture Farmers: Evidence from a Market-Oriented Approach in Kenya

This paper evaluates the impact of a market-oriented agricultural extension program called Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion (SHEP) in Kenya. The SHEP approach prioritizes practical training for farmers to act as producers in a market by encouraging decentralized decision-making. Using a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) over a two-year period, we find that, on average, SHEP increased horticultural income significantly by 70% and the positive effect was more pronounced in vulnerable households whose head of household is female, less educated or older. The effect is not relevant to horticultural experience prior to the intervention. Our findings suggest that a market-oriented agricultural extension can provide a pathway to improve the living standards of small-scale farmers through an increase in horticultural income. Satoshi Shimizutani JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development 10-5 Ichigaya Honmuracho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Shimizutani.Satoshi@jica.go. jp Shimpei Taguchi JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development 10-5 Ichigaya Honmuracho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Taguchi.Shimpei@jica.go. jp Eiji Yamada JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development 10-5 Ichigaya Honmuracho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Yamada.Eiji@jica.go. jp Hiroyuki Yamada Faculty of Economics, Keio University 2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo hyamada@econ.keio. ac.jp Acknowledgement: This study was conducted as part of the project “Empirical Research in Africa” at JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development, which sponsored the data collection and gave us formal permission to use the data. We thank the Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion Project for Local and Up-scaling (SHEPPLUS) headed by Francisca Malenge, the Government of Kenya, county governments, all Kenyan government officials involved in the data collection procedures. We are also grateful to Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), our research partner, for providing us with useful comments on designing the research framework. Our gratitude is extended to all the experts in the SHEP project, especially Jiro Aikawa, Nobuhide Hayashi, Taku Seo and Etsuko Masuko for their enthusiastic support and useful information on the project, and Koji Makino, Hitoshi Fujiie and other JICA staff for their constructive comments. Our special appreciation is extended to late professor Nobuhiko Fuwa who made extraordinary commitments towards designing the research framework and his collaborators as well as Innovations for Poverty Actions (IPA) for their data collection efforts. We also thank Hamza Umer for his excellent research assistance. Finally, yet most importantly, our special gratitude goes to the Kenyan farmers, who spent many hours answering questions. This research is dedicated to these farmers, who have a deep passion for making a difference in their lives. The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official positions of either the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development or JICA.