FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PROFITABILITY OF PUMPKIN
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
This chapter covers the background of the study, problem statement, general and specific objectives, justification of the study and study area.
Pumpkin is a plant crop originated from northeastern Mexico and the southern united states, where currently, it is widely grown in many countries all over the world. Pumpkin is one of the first cash crops of early colonial America. It grows plentifully in the southern states and is a significant source of income for many plantations.
Today, pumpkin is grown in over 110 countries, and its cultivation requires a tropical or temperate climate.. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Although the government is trying to educate farmers to diversify in agriculture to improve the quality of life of its citizens, there is a situation where farmers, especially in Eastern Kenya (Machakos county), grow one cash crop over a long time hence most of them are still languishing in poverty due to reliance on single crop production (monocropping). The practice has not been able to raise their living standards. A study carried in 2017 by the Ministry of Planning shows that approximately 60.4% of the population in Machakos live below the poverty line. Overtime earnings from this enterprise have been declining, which has negatively affected the people’s livelihood in the division as a majority of them have allocated a higher proportion of their land to pumpkin farming and largely depend on it for most of their financial needs.
Some farmers in 2018 abandoned pumpkin farming and instead went for maize farming, citing low returns in pumpkin farming. There has been a growing dissatisfaction among farmers with the returns they get, which has led to the development of negative attitudes by farmers towards the enterprise.
To determine the factors influencing pumpkin farming among small-scale farmers in Machakos County.
1.3.2 Specific Objectives
- To assess the profitability of pumpkin farming in Machakos county by identifying the factors influencing the gross margin.
- To determine factors influencing the gross margin of pumpkin farming in Machakos County.
2.3 Theoretical Framework
This study is based on the theory of the firm, specifically the production theory. When any firm produces any commodity, the services of different factors of production are required. To secure the services of a factor of production, a firm makes payments to these factors. The amount which is paid by the firm for this purpose is called the cost of production. The cost of production may be defined as the amount of money paid out or otherwise sacrificed by the firm to secure the productive services with which output produced. The cost of production may be of two kinds; Nominal value and Real cost. The nominal value is the money cost of production, also known as expenses of production, while real cost refers to the sacrifices which are made by the producer, also known as the opportunity cost. To produce any commodity, the producer has to combine the factors of production. These factors can also be used to provide any other product and the sacrifice made by the producer by deciding not to produce that commodity is known as the opportunity cost. The cost of production for an entrepreneur may be analyzed from another point of view. The price may be supplementary or prime. An additional charge of a firm is that part of the fee which does not vary as output varies. Whether the production is zero, supplementary costs remain the same while the prime price is that cost, which varies with the change in the level of output. Total cost is the amount which is spent on the production of a specific number of units of any commodity, and it’s given by the summation of fixed costs and variable costs. Total revenue is the amount that is obtained by a firm by selling a specific quantity of any commodity in the market.
2.4.1 Determinants of Farm Profitability.
Production is the process of combining and coordinating inputs such as fertilizer, seeds, land, equipment, among others, in producing an output. This production varies with the level of input use. Relationship between inputs and outputs can be expressed mathematically as:-
Q = f(X1, X2, ……………..,Xn)
Where;- Q =Output of sweet potato;
(X1, X2,……..Xn) = Inputs (e.g. Land, fertilizer, seeds, among others)
3.2 Study Area
The study will be carried out in Machakos County. Machakos lies on latitude 049’50E and longitude 35.66 E of Machakos town. It has an altitude of around 1138 Meters above sea level and temperature of 20oC/68oF. The area has a significant river passing through, and that is the Tana River. It experiences rainfall (1846mm) twice a year (i.e. March and June- long rains; October and November-short rains). The area has a population of 75000 as per the 2009 census, and agricultural activities in the division are both a cash crop and subsistence farming. There is very little livestock farming in the area, as most farms have been allocated to under pumpkin farming.
Data will be collected from questionnaires. Both open and closed questionnaires will be administered to respondents.
The data will be collected from documented materials. It will also be obtained from statements, company’s offices stationed in various locations in the study area and also from annual reports from the District Agricultural Officer (DAO), Machakos District.
Data to be obtained will be analyzed by the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics will be used to facilitate a summary of the data collected. This summery will be organized into groups, themes and patterns by use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS-16.0). Inferential statistics will also be used to generalize results from samples of the target population.
REFERENCES
Alvarez, José and Thomas J. Schueneman. (1991). Costs and Returns for Sugarcane Production on Muck Soils in Florida, 1990–91. Economic Information Report EI 91-3. Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (June). Anastacia, A. (1982