Agricultural Pesticides used by small-scale farmers in Kenya: What are the experiences of the farmers?

Introduction: Several crops are grown in Kenya for commercial and subsistence purposes. However, pests have become a major threat to farming. To address this, farmers use different kinds of pesticides. While it is a fact that pesticides are heavily used, there is scanty literature on the nature and types of pesticides used by small scale farmers in Kenya. Further, the extent to which the integrated pest management plan is used is not known. Therefore, this survey sought to explore major crops grown in Kenya, pests affecting them, nature of agricultural pesticides used, and finally, the effectiveness of the agricultural pest control methods used by small scale farmers. Methods: This was a descriptive study. 95 respondents from different counties in Kenya participated in this study. A self-administered questionnaire which comprised of open-ended and close-ended questions were used in data collection. Findings: The studies revealed that farmers practiced subsistence farming. Major pests affecting crops were insects and rodents. Pests majorly affected crops while they were on the farm. Most of the agricultural pesticides used by the respondents were insecticides and rodenticides. The study established that artificial pesticides are more effective and most preferred than home-made pesticides. Recommendations: The study recommends the adoption of integrated pest management, organic farming, and communal approaches to pest control. It further recommends training on best practices of agriculture. relates to the farming practices mostly used by small scale farmers.


Introduction
Agriculture is the backbone of the economic growth in Kenya. According to USAID, about 75% of Kenyans earn all or part of their income from this sector(USAID -Kenya, 2019). Agriculture accounts for 33% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (USAID -Kenya, 2019). In Kenya several crops are grown such as beans, green grams, maize, vegetables, watermelon, tomatoes and fruits of different kinds. Crop damage caused by insects and pests and diseases is common in developing countries and creates a great economic loss (Loha, Lamoree, Weiss, & Boer, 2018). Pests have become a major threat to agriculture in Kenya. For instance, a report by WVI observed that in 2017 an estimated, 40 percent of farms were reported to be infested with the fall armyworm (World Vision International, 2017). To address this, farmers use different kinds of artificial pesticides and homemade pesticides. Pesticides have important benefits (International Food Information Council Foundation, 2019). They improve productivity, protection crop losses, control vector diseases and in some scenarios, pesticides increase quality of food [5] [6]. This supports the argument that without the use of pesticides, farmers would not be able to harvest significant yields (Soko) A study by Lohaa found out that there were increases in imports of pesticides in Kenya from 2008 to 2015. It further found out that there were more than 11 companies in Kenya involved in the manufacturing of varying pesticide products (Loha, Lamoree, Weiss, & Boer, 2018) . In a study on potential environmental impacts of pesticides use in the vegetable sub-sector in Kenya, it was revealed that that organophosphates, carbamates, pyrethroids, tetranortriterpenoids and carcinogens were used (Macharia, Mithofer, & Waibel, 2009) . The study further established that approximately 60% of the pesticides quantities were indicated to be bad actor chemicals, meaning they affected the environment negatively, 64% to be ground water contaminants, and 47% very harmful to beneficial insects (Macharia, Mithofer, & Waibel, 2009) . (Soko, 2018). (Soko) Literature on pesticides in Kenya is skewed towards pesticides and health. Several studies have documented pesticides and health (Macharia I., 2015) , ( program is based on individualized consultancy through business coaching, application of business ideas to real life business, mentorship and creating networks. One of the key focus of program is agribusiness. In order to get the respondents, an online google-form questionnaire was sent to all the 257 current and alumni of the MBA program who were doing agribusiness. They were purposively selected because target population had knowledge of agribusiness.

Questionnaire survey
The respondents were the people who practiced farming at various scales. They comprised of those who had a farm, who were supporting farmers by providing inputs to famers and finally those that had basic knowledge in agribusiness. The research focused on 95 farmers who filled the questionnaires online representing a 36% response rate. They comprised of 76 (80%) who had a farm, 6 (6%) who were supporting farming activities by providing inputs and 13 (14%) who had basic knowledge in agribusiness. The self-administered questionnaire had four parts and comprised of open ended and close ended questions. The first part sought to solicit background information of respondents such as gender, age, area where respondents were carrying our agricultural activities, types of crops grown by farmers, extent famers practice farming and size of the land used for farming. Part two sought to find out the experience of farmers in areas such as the most common pests in their farms, state of crops the pests destroy, environmental conditions that encourage these pests to flourish, artificial pesticides and home-made pesticides used to control agricultural pests, agricultural pest control methods mostly used and their effectiveness. The third part was on environmental related activities in farms. Specifically, this explored the prevalence of trees, ground cover, and use of fertilizers, apiary activities, gullies and the existence of firewood in the area. Finally, the fourth part sought to find out the methods of improving pesticide use.

Data analysis
Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. We used frequencies to summarize data that was collected from close ended and open-ended questions. Open-ended questions data was summarized into themes then frequencies were drawn.

Results
Demographic and socio-characteristics of the respondents Size of farms and nature of farmers The 95 participants who comprised of 57% were male and 38% were female were small scale farmers cultivating on pieces of land of various sizes ranging from one acre to five acres. This shows that majority of farm owners are male. This concurs with a report which states that customary law and practices, prohibit women from owning or inheriting land and other forms of property in Kenya Environment where the farms were located.
To find out whether the location and nature of environment had any relationship with pest occurrences, we studied the vegetation cover and farming practices carried out by respondents.
Regarding presence of vegetative cover, 60% of the respondents stated that there was increase of trees and 50% observed that there was increase in ground cover in the areas where their farms were situated. This implies that farms were moderately in the regions where there was vegetative cover. As  Crops that were mostly grown by the respondents Table 3, presents the crops commonly grown by the respondents and crops most affected by pests.
The most common crops affected by pesticides reported by the respondents were vegetables 98%, maize 59%, beans 32%, fruits 27%, Irish potatoes 17%, sweet potatoes 9%, coffee 8%, green grams 4%, Groundnuts 2% and Tea 2%. Interestingly, the crops mostly cultivated by farmers were the most affected by the pesticides. The study also revealed that food crops were most affected than the cash crops.

Nature of crops affected by pests
Regarding the nature of crops, mostly affected by pests as reflected in Table 4, most of the respondents 66% stated that pests affected fresh foods, thus when the crops are in the farm, 26% stated that pests affected both fresh crops, packaged food, 7% stated that pests affected packaged food. This shows that the pests majorly affected crops while they were in the farm. Common Pests affecting crops grown in Kenya Table 5 presents the common pests affecting crops in Kenya. As noted from the table 84% of the most common pests were caterpillar related pests. These were stalk borers, white flies, worms, army worms and cut worms. 44% were rodents, 31% were aphids, 26% termites and ants, 25% weevils, 23% fungus and bright, 16% insects, and 9% were viral related pests. This indicates that the major pests affecting farmers were caterpillars, rodents aphids, termites, weevils and insects.

Conditions that encourage pests to thrive
Regarding the factors that contribute to pests, two themes emerged namely farming practice and environmental issues.

Farming practices
Majority of the farmers pointed out that lack of knowledge for cultivation contributed to pests thriving in their farms. Some farmers did not observe best farming practices such as observing crop rotation, weeding at the right time and early planting. One farmer attributed this to the fact that small-scale farmers cultivate on small pieces of land which make it difficult to do crop rotation. Some communities were practicing monoculture which led to planting same crops on same piece of land. This is supported by a farmer (Admin, 2019) who advised others by explaining that: "Growing maize alone is risky since a farmer can lose an entire harvest to diseases and pests. There is need therefore to explore other crops that can act as a buffer against hunger during the dry spell." One of the farmers indicated that due to the small sizes of land, he does not observe crop rotation which should reduce pests. The study also revealed that certain crops such as maize, being staple food crops, farmers had no option for other crops. Poor pest control in the neighboring farms contributed to increase in pests would migrate to neighboring farms. As one farmer observed:,

Types of agricultural pest control methods used by farmers
Regarding usage of pesticides as reflected in Table 7, the study revealed that the majority 80% of the respondents used artificial pesticides followed by those that were using home-made pesticides 68% and those that were using a mixture were the least with 65%. This suggest that the respondents' most preferred remedy for pesticides was artificial pesticides followed by home-made pesticides. Effectiveness of Methods of controlling Pests According to Table 8, 79% of the respondents stated that the use of artificial pesticides was the most effective method to control pests, then 63% stated that mixture of artificial and home-made pesticides was effective and finally 62% stated that home-made pesticides were effective. This finding suggest that majority of the respondents perceive that artificial pesticides are more effective than home-made and mixture of artificial and home-made pesticides.

Discussion Environment
The fact that respondents observed increase in use of fertilizers can be explained by a FAO report which detected that cultivation of cereals on the same land without addition of organic or inorganic fertilizers leads to low yields, which in turn lead to inability to afford the purchase of inputs . This is important to note that pesticides were used to kill pests and to treat infections. The common pests were those that affected crops in the farms and during storage. This is an important finding which relates to the farming practices mostly used by small scale farmers.
Environmental conditions that encourage pests

Effectiveness of agricultural pest control methods used in Kenya
Regarding effectiveness of pest control methods, there is no clear cut as which ones are more effective than the others among home-made, artificial and integration of the two. This suggests the dilemma of farmers to commit to one type of method. However, it is interesting that quite a significant percentage of the farmers opined that mixture of artificial and home-made were effective.
This suggest that small scale farmers use integrated pest control to a certain level. Perhaps they have the advantage of size of the farms compared to large-scale farmers who may find difficulties to deploy homemade pesticides for the large farms.

Strategies of improving the methods
Regarding suggestions to improve pest control four themes emerged namely adoption of integrated pest management, adoption of organic farming, training on best practices of agriculture, and adoption of communal approach to pest control.

Adoption of integrated pest management
Farmers proposed that there is need to use a mixture of home-made pest control measures and artificial agricultural pesticides which are not harmful to the fauna and flora. Among the local measures were ashes and chilies to control insects such as aphids in vegetables.
Training on best practices of agriculture including organic farming Farmers should be given information on the best pesticides and how to use them for optimal performance such as planting at the right time of the season, crop rotation, using push and pull technology, improve physical barrier to keep away pests, proper storage, weeding, practice of biological technologies, weeding at early stage, by using those that are friendly to the soils and the environment, drying the crops well before storage. Farmers proposed using organic methods of farming such as planting pest repellant varieties of crops to protect crops that are prone to be affected by pests.

Future Research
There is need to carry out more research on what works best where, scientific research to determine which crops are resistant to which pests. Second, there is need to document home-made pesticides and their associated pests that they kill, reduce or repel.