One Acre Fund Program Interventions’ Effect on Farm Yield as a Measure of Smallholder Farmers’ Welfare in Kakamega County, Kenya

The general welfare of smallholder farmers is tied to the productivity of their farms. However, low agricultural productivity is an issue at the micro and macro levels of the developing economies. Evidence shows that though agriculture is the backbone of these economies, smallholder farmers still struggle with poverty and food insecurity. The sector faces challenges ranging from inaccessibility to credit, agro-inputs, and information, hence their low yields and farm profits. Due to these diverse inefficiencies, smallholders almost have no chance of their farms attaining maximum productivity. They are subsequently trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty due to low disposable income. Thus, interventions both by the government and the private sector, such as the provision of financing and agro inputs to realize desired agricultural productivity, are required. As such, One Acre Fund (OAF) came into play to bridge the gap to help smallholders ease their access to credit, farm inputs, information, and training to help them maximize their output and, in doing so, help in alleviating poverty, hunger and malnutrition, and enhance food security. This research sought to determine the effect that OAF's interventions have on the farm productivity of smallholders from Kakamega County, Kenya. A non-experimental research design was employed using primary data that was obtained from 360 farmers' family heads, both OAF participants and non-participants from Kakamega County, specifically from Mumias East Sub-County. Questionnaires with both closed-ended and open-ended questions were used. The study sample was randomly selected from the three wards of Mumias East Sub County: East Wanga, Malaha-Isongo-Makunga, and Lubinu-Lusheya. Robust regression results showed that interventions by OAF caused an increase in the farm yield of member farmers. The Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATET) estimation results showed that the effect of OAF membership on yield is statistically significant and also that the yield difference between members of OAF and non-members is marginally statistically significant. These results suggest that targeted agricultural interventions can help break the cycle of low productivity and income by effectively reducing poverty and improving food security among smallholder farmers, thus recommending the joining of non-member farmers into the OAF program, aligning similar package program providers with an endowment of local resources with a special focus on the youth, and households with widowed and divorced members through the expansion of access to agricultural inputs and credit.