Abstract:
Maize is the main staple food crop in Kenya and is of vital concern to agricultural policy decisions, food
security and overall development of the sector and the economy
. It
is also the dominant staple
food crop in the study area.
However, there has been a declining trend in maize production among
farmers in Migori County, a tobacco growing zone, threatening household and national food security.
This
paper examines
socio economic factors influencing smallholder maize production in Migori County.
A
survey was conducted and the target population included all smallholder maize farmers in tobacco
growing zones of Migori County. A multistage sampling technique was used. A sample of 165 maize
farmers was selected using systematic random sampling.
Descriptive statistics such as measures of central
tendency, cross tabulation, tables, and bar graphs as well as regression were used to
analyze
data.
Results
show that farmer’s age - a proxy for experience, resource base as captured by size of cattle herd, total
cropped area and competition from tobacco production influence maize production. Efforts to improve
maize production in Migori County should improve resource base of farmers, pay attention to their
experience and consider competition for scarce production resources.
