Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 2
.
In between villages: Leakage to urban area (Kiambu) and locally linked area (Mbeere) in
Kenya
Kiambu district is located close to Nairobi (20 km north) and is characterized by a relatively high altitude,
high precipitation and high population density in comparison with Mbeere district. Kiambu district was
considered a high agricultural potential area, while Mbeere was considered to have low/medium
agricultural potential. Mbeere district is located some 100 km north-east from Nairobi. In Kiambu, 66% of
the people see their main occupation as farmer, while 16% are mainly involved in non-farm employment
(or commercial activities). In Mbeere the figures are around the same, with 71% farmers and 13% non-
farm employment. Data on the impacts of commercial activities on family income and food security gives
some insight into how non-farm income is being spent by farmers:
Impact of non-farm activities on family income and food security (% of farm households reporting type of
impact)
Kiambu
Mbeere
Kibichoi
(
n
=19)
Ngaita
(
n
=19)
Kamugi
(
n
=17)
Purchased food items
84
74
59
Purchased non-food items
32
32
24
Agricultural inputs, hired labour
11
26
88
Increased income
37
21
6
Additional production for consumption
-
21
6
Paying school fees
21
16
12
Paying group contributions
26
5
Market share
3.6
-18
-28
In Kiambu, non-farm income has most impact on food and non-food items. In Kamugi, Mbeere
however, the non-farm activities do have a significant impact on investments in inputs and labour.
The market share is a measure for self-sufficiency of the farm, where low values indicate highly self-
sufficient (i.e., few interactions with the market) and high values indicate highly market-oriented farms.
Positive market shares indicate that more products were sold on the market than bought. Data in the
table show that with the exception of Kibichoi, market shares were negative, i.e. more products were
bought on the market than sold.
Source: INMASP (www.inmasp.nl)
therefore, use multiple indicators to gauge the importance of non-farm employment
(Table 3). The first indicator is whether household members' main occupation is
non-farm (non-agricultural) employment, signalling the importance attached to non-
farm activities (column 1). There is a clear pattern that the closer one lives to urban
areas, the more important non-farm activities become as the main source of income.
The second indicator measures the share of household members involved in non-farm
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