Adoption of on-farm water management strategies and its impact on household welfare: Evidence from the Upper Ewaso Ng’iro North Catchment Area, Kenya

Abstract

On-farm water management strategies can be classified into technological and non-technological options. While, numerous studies have assessed the drivers of the adoption of conservation strategies, few have assessed the welfare impacts of adoption. Analysis was conducted on cross-sectional farm household data collected from 652 households randomly selected from eight sub-catchments of the Upper Ewaso Ng’iro North Catchment Area (ENNCA). The study assessed the determinants of adoption of on-farm water management strategies and estimated the impact of adoption on household consumption per adult equivalent, using the Multinomial Endogenous Switching Regression (MESR) framework. The results show that adoption of on-farm water management strategies, is influenced by household socioeconomic and institutional factors; and adoption of all WMS offers the greatest impact on household welfare. Therefore, households need to be trained on the importance of the adoption of multiple water management strategies so as to benefit from substitutionality and complementarity of these technologies.