ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1563538
This article is part of the Research TopicCropping Systems Adaptation in the Context of Global Change: Current Trends and Future DirectionsView all 3 articles
Understanding Seed Selection Decisions among Small-Scale Maize Farmers in Machakos County, Kenya: The Dominance of Market Leader Varieties Authors and Affiliation
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
- 2International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center- CIMMYT (Ethiopia), Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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The maize seed market in Kenya is highly competitive, yet older varieties dominate smallholder farmers' preferences. The current study aimed to identify the key drivers of maize seed selection by examining trait priorities, prior experience, purchase behaviour, and sociodemographic profiles of farmers across different seed variety groups. Farmers were categorized into three groups based on their preferred maize varieties: market leader, competitor, and low-cost. A multinomial logit model was used for inferential analysis. The results revealed that 70% of the farmers preferred market leader varieties, while 21% preferred competitor varieties and 7% chose low-cost varieties.Drought tolerance emerged as the most valued trait, reported by 72% of farmers. In addition, farmers reported little experience with different maize seed varieties and hybrids. Trait preferences, previous knowledge, and farm size primarily significantly influenced seed selection.Regarding purchasing behaviour, most farmers made quick decisions at a mock agro-dealer store, often disregarding price offers and informational posters when their preferred variety was available. This study provides a basis for developing strategies that encourage and influence farmers to broaden their maize seed choice considerations which will ultimately improve domestic maize production as climate change continues. It aimed to understand better the factors influencing farmers' loyalty to market leader maize varieties in Machakos County, Kenya.
Keywords: Agro-dealer, Competitor, low-cost, Multinomial logit, varietal turnover
Received: 20 Jan 2025; Accepted: 11 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mawia, Mburu, Chimoita and Rutsaert. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Harriet Mawia, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
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