Effect of Participation in Commercial Production of Medicinal Plants through Community-Based Conservation Groups on Farm Income at Kakamega Forest, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Forest conservation by peripheral communities is one of the most advocated strategies for ensuring sustainable supply of forest goods and services. In Kenya, although conservation activities generate considerable environmental improvements, studies evaluating the economic benefits are very limited. This study aimed at assessing the impact of participating in the commercialization training program by forest adjacent communities on farm income. Utilizing matching techniques, the analysis is based on the data collected from a randomly selected sample of farm households around Kakamega forest in Kenya. The results show that age, forest distance, forest benefit, market distance, and farming experience are the main factors that influence the participation in the commercialization program. Also, participating in commercial production of medicinal plants has a positive and significant effect on farmers’ income. The average treatment effect on the treated (ATT), based on three estimation algorithms, ranges from KSH. 80,047 to KSH. 176,788 per hectare, per year, implying that policy efforts that focus on the participation in the commercialization program of medicinal plants can enhance incomes among farm-dependent households. The findings from this study suggest that upscaling the participation in the commercialization program to other areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Impact
• medicinal plants
• commercial production
• Kakamega forest
• Kenya
• Africa

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from European Union for Switch Africa Green project, United Nation Office for Projects Services (UNOPS), and Biovision Foundation. The authors are also extremely indebted to the Applied Bioprospecting Programme (ABP) of icipe for field logistics support, Muliru Farmers Conservation Group (MFCG) for coordinating the survey on the ground and farmers who voluntarily participated in the household surveys and the enumerators for their effort in data collection. icipe also receives core funding from UK Aid from the UK Government, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany, and the Kenyan Government.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union for Switch Africa Green project; Biovision Foundation; United Nation Office for Projects Services (UNOPS).