Influence of Water Availability on Food Crop Production in Semi-Arid Areas in Kibwezi District, Makueni County, Kenya
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Publication Date
2015Author
Bosire, Esnah
Oindo, Boniface
Mutavi, Irene
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Show full item recordAbstract/ Overview
Ecosystems provide essential services like water regulation and other processes which sustain and fulfill
human life by directly or indirectly supporting humans‟ survival and quality of life. However, there is insufficient
knowledge on the influence of water availability as an ecosystem service on food crop production as a livelihood insemiarid
areas Kenya. The objective of this study was to establish the influence of water availability on food crop production
as a livelihood in semi-arid areas in Kibwezi district. A Cross-sectional descriptive research design involving use of
purposive and simple random sampling was adopted. Primary data was obtained using structured questionnaires to
interview a minimum of 384 house hold heads from a study population of 248,704. The results indicated that 70.3%
accessed rainwater, 79.2% obtained water from boreholes, and 23.4% from streams, 29.7 % accessed tap water, while
only 2.6 % accessed water from springs. Further, 76.6% of the households practiced irrigation out of which 67.3% used
more than 500 liters of water. Crops grown under irrigation include maize, spinach, kales, Asian vegetables, fruits,
babycorns, tomatoes and onions. Least squares regression analysis was employed to determine the influence of water
availability on food crop yields. The results showed that 67.2% of the variation in total rainfed crop yields in Kgs was
explained by total monthly rainfall amounts for short rains (r
2
= 0.672, p< .01) while 51.9% of variation in total irrigated
crop yields in Kgs was explained by total amount of water used for irrigation in one season (r
2
=0.519, p<.01). The study
concluded that water availability majorly influence the variation of total food crop yields for both rainfed and irrigated
crops in Kibwezi district. The food crops are grown for consumption and local sales from which the income obtained is
used to acquire basic family needs like clothing, shelter, medicine, paying school fees hence improving their well-being.