Determinants of Sweet Potatoes (Ipomoea batatas L) Profitability in Rachuonyo South District, Kenya

Abstract

Sweet potato is a high yielding crop with a higher food value than many staple food crops. Its production in Kenya is concentrated in Rachuonyo South district. To promote growth of the sweet potato subsector and to reduce poverty situation among the sweet potato producers, the Kenya government formulated myriad food and agricultural policies. However, implementation of the policies in the sweet potato sub sector has faced challenges partly due to insufficient information on the profitability relations of sweet potatoes. The purpose of this study was therefore, to establish profit model of sweet potato production in the region. Population of the study was 166 commercial sweet potato farmers out of which 116 were selected using simple random sampling technique. Correlation analysis was conducted to determine the association between the study variables and to assess the existence of multicollinearity while Ordinary Least Square Technique was used to estimate the profitability model. The study revealed that: Duration of the farmer in sweet potato farming (β = 0.267, p = 0.0145), sales growth rate (β = 0.305, p = 0.011), market share (β = 0.944, p = 0.000), labour intensity (β = 0.251, p = 0.000) and total operating cost (β = - 0.258, p = 0.001) all had significant influence on sweet potato profitability. It is recommended that leaning by experience be enhanced through training on production and post-harvest management techniques to minimize potential handling and storage related losses, increase sales growth rate and market shares, encourage use of manual labour and at the same time determine the optimal number of workers per unit area of land.