Impact of interventions in bee-keeping and irrigation household welfare in the Kerio basin development zone, Kenya

The Primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of interventions in bee-keeping and irrigation on household welfare in the Kerio Basin Development Zone. Specifically, the study has analyzed four main areas of impacts: employment-creation, income-generation, production and consumption patterns. Twenty seven modern bee-keepers and thirty-nine farmers in Chemron-Marigat-Perkerra irrigation area were interviezed. Information was also sought from institutions involved in these two activities. The results of the study reveal the following: a. Households that have adopted the new methods of bee-keeping reported that this activity provides, in varying degrees, employment to members of households. Other major benefits include increased honey production, earnings from the sale of honey and increased honey for home consumption. b. The problems experienced by the households that have adopted new methods of bee-keeping are: the physical environment, pests, and prices and marketing of honey. c. Two main kinds of intervention are taking place in irrigation: i) rehabilitation of traditional irrigation furrows, and ii) development of new irrigation projects. d. The respondents indicated two main benefits from irrigation: increase in production and improvement of the general welfare of the households in health, shelter, education and food. e. Water shortage is a major problem for the majority of the respondents (37) or (94.9%). Other problems are diseases, blockage of furrows, lack of market, crop failure and lack of funds. f. The changes sought by the respondents include construction of more dams, improvement in marketing of crops, provision of title deeds and loans, introduction of well-researched programmes and control of diseases. The study concludes that although intervention in bee-keeping and irrigation have led to some improvement in the employment, income, production and consumption patterns of households in the Keria Bassin Development Zone, there is a need to solve the problems related to appropriateness of the bee-keeping technology, water shortage, marketing of produce and diseases. With careful planning, it is possible to address these problems and increase the benefits of new methods in bee-keeping and irrigation.