Lawrence Mose - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Books by Lawrence Mose

The importance of sweet potato as a staple crop in Africa has been highlighted at the African Uni... more The importance of sweet potato as a staple crop in Africa has been highlighted at the African Union level. The crop is ranked among the high-priority crops for food security and poverty alleviation for the urban and rural poor. Currently, Kenya has an estimated area of 90,000 ha under sweet potato; the corresponding estimated production was 1.2 million tonnes compared to 880,000 tonnes in 2008 (FAOSTAT, 2015).This book is expected to help understand the concepts and techniques of sweet potato production, utilization, and marketing as well as the existing innovations and opportunities for further innovations. The book is aimed at assisting all stakeholders, including the poor, to access information on nutrition and to boost local economies. Innovations and challenges at various levels along the value chain are discussed as well as suggestions on ways of overcoming or reducing their effects. I encourage everyone involved in sweet potato activities at any level of the value chain to read this book, which contains much useful information.

Papers by Lawrence Mose

Credible quantitative and qualitative information on existing capacities in agricultural higher e... more Credible quantitative and qualitative information on existing capacities in agricultural higher education agencies in Africa are important for decisionmakers at national, regional, and international levels. Decisionmakers require data and indicators for strategic planning, policy formulation, setting priorities and benchmarks, measuring progress toward benchmarks, and identifying capacity gaps. Decisionmakers need a better understanding of the specifics of existing staffing and student capacities in the higher education sector, as well as in the wider agricultural innovation systems in Africa south of the Sahara. Access to such information will result in better policies addressing capacity issues in agricultural higher education, research, extension, and other areas. The existence of such information, however, remains extremely limited.Non-PRIFPRI2; ASTIEPT

Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 2020

Agricultural mechanization is on the rise in Africa. A widespread replacement of manual labor and... more Agricultural mechanization is on the rise in Africa. A widespread replacement of manual labor and animal traction will change the face of African agriculture. Despite this potentially transformative role, only a few studies have looked at the effects of mechanization empirically, mostly focusing on yields and labor alone. This is the first paper that explores perceived agronomic, environmental, and socioeconomic effects together, thereby revealing linkages and trade-offs, some of which have been hitherto unknown. Data were collected using a novel data collection method called “participatory impact diagrams” in four countries: Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, and Mali. In 129 gendered focus group discussions, 1330 respondents from 87 villages shared their perceptions on the positive and negative effects of agricultural mechanization, and developed causal impact chains. The results suggest that mechanization is likely to have more far-reaching agronomic, environmental, and socioeconomic consequ...

Global Food Security, 2022

Mechanization, digitalization, and rural youth engagement are central to African agricultural tra... more Mechanization, digitalization, and rural youth engagement are central to African agricultural transformation. Each of these topics is associated with debates on opportunities, risks, and appropriate policy actions, which become visible in international research discourses and policy fora. In contrast, little is known about the viewpoints of national stakeholders. This paper explores the viewpoints of 195 respondents from different stakeholders categories in Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, and Mali. The results reveal hitherto neglected aspects, e.g., the role of animal traction, the continued appeal of state-led mechanization, and data sovereignty concerns. Gender, age, and education influence the viewpoints on some topics. Paying attention to local stakeholders can help to choose and design the most promising policies/programs and ensure their implementation on the ground.

Farmer Participatory Research (FPR) approach has been adopted in the Soil Management Project (SMP... more Farmer Participatory Research (FPR) approach has been adopted in the Soil Management Project (SMP) in Western Kenya since 1994, in order to enhance farmer involvement in the technology development process. Several improved technologies have been developed, tested, proved to be technically feasible and advocated for wider dissemination to farmers. However, researchers have been hesitant to draw conclusive recommendations due to some hitherto, un-explained reasons. Recent investigations indicate that although the scientists have good biophysical data, they lack the necessary socio-economic information to support their desired innovations. Even where attempts have been made to incorporate such information, it has often turned out to be unrealistic due to lack of consideration of the farmers' views. This paper discusses the steps being taken, the progress and experience gained towards a farmer participatory socio-economic evaluation of agricultural interventions under the SMP.

A survey was carried out to establish the current state of tuber utilisation and sweet potato pro... more A survey was carried out to establish the current state of tuber utilisation and sweet potato production among farmers in Trans Nzoia District. The objectives of the study were: To determine adoption rates of the technology by gender in the different locations; determine economic gains and incomes accruing from adopting the technology, determine nutrition improvement to the household members due to the technology and establish market channels of the crop. The data collected from sweet potato farmers were analysed using SPSS for frequencies and descriptive statistics. The results showed that all the farmers consume part of the produce and 51% marketed part of the produce. All the farmers prefer the local varieties because of the taste. The study also showed that sweet potato is increasingly becoming an important crop in maize based farming systems of Trans Nzoia District where it is planted during off-season to cater for food security. Utilisation base for human was still narrow with...

African journal of agricultural research

Soil nutrient depletion is a major constraint to agricultural production on smallholder farms in ... more Soil nutrient depletion is a major constraint to agricultural production on smallholder farms in Kenya. Intervention in the depletion through soil management project (SMP) was initiated in 1994 through 2004. Phase one involved development of low cost technologies while phase two was designed to upscale the technologies. An impact assessment of the SMP project on the livelihoods of target beneficiaries was carried out in 2006 to determine the effects of the project of target community. A semi structured questionnaire jointly developed by stakeholders after identifying progress indicators was administered to 192 respondents who were randomly selected using simple random sampling technique. The farmers were stratified into participating and control or counterfactuals. The results showed that there was significant impact on target communities and other stakeholders who were involved in the project. The crop yields food supply and household earnings increased. A number of farmers, extens...

With population increase, food insecurity increases. This creates challenges to technology develo... more With population increase, food insecurity increases. This creates challenges to technology developers and disseminators in alleviating the problems. This requires intervention in major problematic areas including livestock feed inadequacy during both dry and wet seasons. To address this issue, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute in collaboration with other stakeholders developed and catalysed the dissemination of forage technologies through adaptive research program. Before the interventions were disseminated, Participatory Rural appraisals were conducted to establish baseline data. There was limited information on the adoption and project impact on the livestock farming community. This necessitated the design of ex post impact assessment study. A sample size of 71 farmers was randomly selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The results showed that the most adopted forage technology was Napier grass using both 'Tumbukiza' and conventional methods of plan...

Maize is the staple food crop and source of income for majority of the Kenyan population and many... more Maize is the staple food crop and source of income for majority of the Kenyan population and many sub-Saharan African countries. The increasing Kenyan population demands an increase in maize production if intermittent food deficits have to be averted. Since the introduction of improved maize varieties in mid-1960, the start of Green Revolution period, maize yields increased drastically up to 1970s and started declining from 1980's to-date. The key contributory factors are nutrient mining, sub-optimal input use and insect pest damage. Of the insect pests, stalk borer is of economic importance. Currently, KARI and CIMMYT are developing maize varieties that are tolerant to stalk borer damage. In order to evaluate the potential impact of these interventions economics of stalk borer control at farm level was evaluated. Surveys complemented with on-farm trials were executed in six major maize growing zones of Kenya. Farmers were randomly selected and a sample-frame established after w...

Maize is the major food crop in Kenya, where 2.4 million tons are produced yearly for 28.6 millio... more Maize is the major food crop in Kenya, where 2.4 million tons are produced yearly for 28.6 million people (85 kg/person). Population is growing rapidly (2.9%/year) and the increased population pressure on the land has resulted in increased pest pressure on crops. Stem borer is one of the most important pests of maize. Previous research with artificial infestation established clear links between incidence or damage factors and yield losses These results cannot be extrapolated to estimate crop losses under natural infestation, although it is precisely those estimates that are needed in order to estimate impact and to set research and extension priorities. Therefore, to estimate the potential impact of the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project, a representative sample of maize fields was selected during 1999 and 2000 for each of Kenya's 5 major agro-ecological zones. Half of each field was protected against stem borers using a systemic insecticide, and the other half was left for natural infestation, and the comparison of yields gives an estimate of crop loss. Total loss in Kenya due to stem borers is thus estimated at 13.5 % (valued at between US$25 and US$ 59.8 million), ranging from 11% in the highlands to 21% in the dry areas. More than half of the losses occur in the moist transitional zone. This area also has a high adoption rate of improved varieties (95%) making this area a promising target for insect resistant varieties. In the dry areas, losses are relatively high (21%), but its low yields reduce potential benefits but those benefits would go to more resource-poor farmers.

… held in Bouake, Ivory …, 2001

… , December 6-8, 2004 …, 2004

Increased awareness among coffee consumers of the impact of their consumption habits on the peopl... more Increased awareness among coffee consumers of the impact of their consumption habits on the people and environment in coffee producing countries has resulted to implementation of certification programs in the coffee sector as an assurance of good practices in production and marketing of coffee. The UTZ certificate was the first to be introduced in the Kenyan coffee industry and this study provides the first quantitative assessment of its impact on smallholder farmers. The propensity score matching technique was used because it solves the ‘selection bias’ problem in assessment of the impact of development programs. The impact of the certification program differed between the two regions where it is being implemented probably due to the differences in bio-economic characteristics. Overall, the impact of the program ranges from higher coffee prices and coffee incomes, increased access to greater amounts of credit for agricultural purposes, increased incomes from other crop enterprises ...