Moderating Influence of Environmental Factors on the Relationship between Participatory project Management Life Cycle and Performance of Mango Farming Projects in Makueni County, Kenya
Authors: Charles Kyale Kisumbi; D. Mulwa; Dr. John Mwaura Mbugua
Year: 2023

The objective of this research, based on a PhD thesis, is to highlight the need for crafting a resilient and robust environmental policy for managing the effects of anthropogenic social hazards in numerous mango projects. The rate at which human-caused anthropogenic pressures have deteriorated pristine ecosystems has converted them into multi-faceted areas of environmental concern. Unplanned activities caused by human economic factors have drastically intensified the growth of uncontrolled polluting projects across the globe and in Africa. They influenced climate change, global warming, and desertification in sub-Saharan Africa. This study advocates for a pragmatic and resilient environmental policy that acts as a catalyst for reducing environmental degradation, which stifles long-term economic growth in mango-growing regions. The performance of the Mango projects did not achieve economic efficiency and optimality yields in this research due to variable rainfall, climate change, and global warming, among other natural and human economic consequences. Reduced forest cover resulted in environmental disruption that impacted the well-being of water catchment towers and their self-sustaining and self-replenishing riparian ecosystems. It also endangered the biosphere, the life-support compartment, the only part of unique biotic and abiotic compartments that supply nutrients and support flora and fauna in a wide range of riparian ecosystems. The study examined how environmental factors influenced the relationship between the participatory life cycle and project performance. The study also sought to investigate how “strategic-fit” those project environments in mango zones were due to the emerging existential risks occasioned by the sporadic proliferation of polluting projects on the global and local scene. Data were collected using structured questionnaires, interviews, and observation guides. The pragmatism research paradigm was selected since it collects both quantitative and qualitative data.From the statistical analyses of correlation and regression, results indicated that, with DF (2, 367) =9.23, t=6.511 at the 95 % significance level P=0.000<0.05, r=0.324 and R2= 0.124, depicted, the test was statistically significant and the null hypothesis rejected. The paper recommends designing a resilient environmental policy to manage the adoption of SMART regenerative agriculture on mango farms, with the backup of participatory regulations that guide carbon sequestration measures to control emerging anthropogenic disasters. In this study, mango fruit was adversely affected by extreme weather conditions and erratic environmental changes. Majorly, the environmental changes were triggered and exacerbated by uncontrolled human activities that disrupted the self-replenishing steady state of nature, leading to global warming and climate change in many mango project environments. For this reason, people should have the smallest ecological footprint to enhance environmental justice and foster sustainable development in volatile mango project environments.