Cost-Benefit Analysis of Agroforestry Technologies in Semi-Arid Regions of West-Pokot County, Kenya

Abstract

West-Pokot County, Kenya experiences harsh arid and semi-arid climatic conditions associated with high poverty indicators. To alleviate poverty, Non-Governmental Organizations initiated projects to promote agroforestry in order to increase sustainable farm forestry management for food, energy security and wealth creation. However, adoption of agroforestry technologies has been slow in these regions due to scanty information on their profitability. This study determined costs, benefits and benefit-cost ratios (B/C) of agroforestry technologies in West-Pokot with the aim of scaling up of profitable and sustainable agroforestry. Purposive sampling technique was used to select two sub-locations of the county, Lelan and Chepareria. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select 91 and 90 households respectively. Questionnaire based interviews and field observations were used in collecting data. Mann–Whitney U test was used for pair wise analysis to determine B/C ratios of agroforestry technologies in Chepareria and Lelan that were significantly different. Boundary tree planting had the highest B/C in Lelan (9.4) and Chepareria (6.88), while scattered trees on farm had the lowest B/C of 0.68 in Lelan and 1.11 in Chepareria. Mann Whitney U test indicated that the B/C ratios of agroforestry technologies in Chepareria and Lelan were significantly different (U= 210.500, P < 0.005). Boundary planting and fodder bank technologies had higher B/C in Lelan as compared to Chepareria. In conclusion, all agroforestry technologies, except scattered trees on farms in Lelan were profitable in West-Pokot as they had a B/C greater than 1.