Food surplus production, wealth, and farmers' strategies in Kenya

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Book chapter

Title:	Food surplus production, wealth, and farmers' strategies in Kenya
Author:	Haugerud, A.
Book title:	Satisfying Africa's Food Needs: Food Production and Commercialization in African Agriculture
Year:	1988
Pages:	153-189
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	seasonality small farms food
Abstract:	This paper is based on field research carried out between August 1978 and May 1981 in Embu District, Kenya, with brief revisits in 1985 and 1986. It examines variation across seasons and among households in small farmers' food production levels, showing that, independently of seasonal variations in rainfall, some small farm households do consistently produce more food than required to meet their customary consumption needs. It highlights the economic complexity and diversity masked by such terms as 'subsistence orientation', and argues that small farmers' subsistence orientation, if present at all, is neither a tradition-bound absence of response to market incentives, nor a reflection of uniformly low productive capacity. Rather, it is in part a direct and variable response to the uncertainties of market and State institutions and policies. An economically crucial aspect of this institutional uncertainty is that it encourages both large and small farmers to reduce their risks by diversifying their economic pursuits rather than specializing in one or two products for the market. Bibliogr., notes, ref.