Diffusion and Adoption of Non-Certified Organic Agriculture: A Case Study from Semi-Arid Makueni District, Kenya

ABSTRACT

This paper traces the diffusion and adoption of non-certified organic agriculture in a semi-arid region of Kenya. Non-certified organic agriculture is conceptualized as an information-intensive innovation comprising 25 distinct practices. Farmers learn about these practices from multiple sources and then choose what to adopt based on their personal preferences, farm characteristics, perceived needs, knowledge level, and other factors. Consequently, each organic agriculture practice is associated with a different adoption rate and set of perceived adoption constraints. This paper also includes discussion of the apparent disconnect between farmers' interaction with non-governmental organizations—the primary source of organic agriculture information in Kenya—and their adoption of organic agriculture practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Adoption
• diffusion
• gender
• Kenya
• non-governmental organizations
• organic agriculture

Support for this research was provided by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship and funds from the Department of Rural Sociology, the Graduate School, and the Graduate Student Council at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.