Abstract:
Rice farming has received considerable attention in developing countries and particularly
in Kenya due to its impact on smallholders’ income and food security. Irrigated rice is the
largest consumer of water and its sustainability is threatened by water shortage. This has
necessitated the development of alternative irrigation water systems that use less water with
high yields such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). This study sought to evaluate
the effects of (SRI) on farm level rice productivity in Mwea Irrigation Scheme. The specific
objectives were: to evaluate the determinants of SRI adoption, to determine the factors that
influence rice productivity under SRI and Conventional Flooding (CF) and to compare the
profitability of SRI and CF. Stratified sampling was used to obtain 364 smallholder rice
farmers. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to these farmers to collect
primary data. The results showed that age, farm size, household size, distance from the
canal, education, access to credit services, access to extension services, and years spent in
rice farming positively and significantly influenced the adoption of SRI. Further, household
size, involvement in off-farm work, farmer experience, distance from the canal, access to
extension services, credit access and labor use significantly affects rice productivity. The
findings further revealed that the returns of SRI were higher by 41,770 compared to CF
although it was more labour intensive during critical periods of field operations. The study
recommends that the government and other stakeholders should devise strategies to
promote adoption of SRI to increase productivity of the rice crop and hence food security
locally and nationally. Additionally, the rice farmers to be encouraged by extension service
providers to concentrate on formal training, participation in farmers field schools,
implementing better farming technology (e.g. SRI) and adoption of appropriate water
conservation practices for enhanced productivity. Finally based on the unique
circumstances of the farmers, the stakeholders should strive to promote adoption of SRI
over CF to improve returns from rice
