




































In ternationa l
Scholars
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African Journal of Agricultural Marketing ISSN 2375-1061 Vol. 4 (1), pp. 001-007, January, 2016. Available online at 
www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals 

 

Author(s)                                           Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. 
 
 

 

Full Length Research Paper 

 

Farm input marketing in western Kenya: Challenges 

and opportunities 

 
Jonas N. Chianu*, Franklin Mairura, Isaac Ekise and Justina N. Chianu 

 
Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility institute of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (TSBF-CIAT), 

c/o World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya. 
 

Accepted 09 October, 2015 
 
Widespread and increasing rural poverty in sub-Saharan Africa has been of great concern to development 
community. Low use of inputs by farmers, due to market constraints that reduce profitability of input use, is 
one of the factors responsible for the gap between potential and actual yields. Using questionnaire, this study 
interviewed 130 agro -input dealers in Kenya to analyze challenges and opportunities in input delivery. Results 
indicate that there has been a steady annual growth (2 – 22%, with mean of 16%) in their number. Di-
ammonium phosphate fertilizer (stocked by 92% respondents) was most commonly stocked, followed by 
Calcium Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer (84%), Urea (78%), and NPK (40%). Other services provided by agro-
dealers are input information (75% respondents), credit (13%), bulk breaking (8%), and spraying (4%). Inputs 
selling price increased with distance to markets; long distances to market disconnect villages from input 
supply chain. High transport cost (53%), low demand (30%), lack of market information (21%), lack of storage 
facilities (13%), and limited business knowledge (12%) were the most important constraints faced by agro-
dealers. Policies and institutional frameworks suggested by dealers to streamline input trade were associated. 
The study concludes with suggestions on how to enhance efficiency of agro-dealers in input delivery. 
 
Key words: Farm input delivery, market constraints, poverty, yield gap, Kenya. 

 
 
INTRODUCTION 

 
Widespread and increasing rural poverty in sub-Saharan 
Africa (SSA) has been of great concern to the develop-
ment community. Compared to other developing regions 
of the world, the low use of farm inputs by smallholder 
farmers in SSA is responsible for the gap between 
potential farmers‟ yields and actual crop yields at farm 
level. A comparison of fertilizer consumption trends in 
SSA and developing countries of Asia shows that while 
average annual fertilizer consumption increased by 182% 
in the latter between 1980 – 1989 and 1996–2000, it in-
creased by only 16% in the former (FAOSTAT, 2003). 
The slow growth in the use of modern agricultural inputs 
in the farming systems of SSA has resulted in missed 
opportunities to increase Africa‟s agricultural production, 
productivity, and household incomes and welfare. Fertili-  
 
 

 
*Corresponding author. Email: j.chianu@cgiar.org. Tel:+(254 

20) 7224778. Fax:+(254 20) 7224764/3. 

 
 
 
 

 
zer use in SSA is the lowest in the world and is actually 

less than 10% of the global mean (about 93 kg ha
-1

) 
(IFDC, 2006).  

This paper examines constraints and challenges limit-
ing the expansion of farm input use by smallholder 
farmers in Western Kenya by assessing input supply side 
issues. This is critical in creating conducive atmosphere 
for agricultural intensification and to enable farmers 
(especially smallholders) produce for markets and lift 
them out of poverty. The study surveyed agro-input deal-
ers in order to ascertain why their farm and other services 
are not reaching many farmers, especially those in 
remote rural areas. An important element of the study 
was to assess the main farm services provided by agro-
input dealers, the constraints and challenges they face 
and the policy and institutional frameworks they would 
want to see implemented in order to enhance the 
environment for a sustainable expansion of their areas of 
coverage and the access of smallholder farmers to farm 
inputs and the other services that they provide. This type 

file:///C:\Users\user\Documents\REPUBLICATION\AGRICULTURAL%20SCIENCES\AppData\Local\Temp\www.internationalscholarsjournals.org


 
 
 

 

of study has a great potential to contribute in the attain-
ment of the goal of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural 
Development Program (CAADP) that calls for a 6% 
annual growth in agricultural production as a framework 
for restoring agricultural growth, food security and rural 
development in Africa and a key step towards attainment 
of first Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty 
by 2015. 
 

 
MATERIALS AND METHODS 
 
Study area 
 
The study was carried out in 13 districts in Western Kenya, a 
densely populated region of Kenya with high levels of hunger, 
extreme poverty, and disease. Over 21% of the region‟s children 
under five years of age are underweight (malnourished). Adult 
HIV/AIDS prevalence is estimated at 30% in much of the region, 
leaving large numbers of orphans. Western Kenya is also charac-
terized by low crop yields and low household cash incomes (Kelly et 
al., 2003). Potable water, paved roads, electricity, and telephone 
landlines are all scarce in this region. Most residents are subsis-
tence farmers. However, farm sizes are so small and often in the 
neighborhood of 0.1 hectares. Farm inputs (such as fertilizer, 
improved seeds or water pumps) are also very scarce. Rainfall is 
unpredictable often resulting in low crop and livestock productivity. 
Many families have difficulty producing enough food to meet their 
needs. Those who manage to produce a surplus have difficulty 
finding buyers or getting good prices.  

The altitude in the study area ranges from low-medium (1000 to 
1300 m.a.s.l) in places such as Kasewe in Rachuonyo district, 
through medium (1270 to 1320 m.a.s.l) in places such as Mabole 
(in Butere district) and Akiites (in Teso district) to high (1500 to 
2100 m.a.s.l) in places such as Oyani (in Migori district) and Riana 
(in Kisii district) (Jaetzold and Schmidt, 1982). Average annual 
rainfall is between 1200 and 2100 mm for Riana area, 1400 and 
1600 mm for Oyani area, 1300 and 2000 mm for Mabole area, 900 
and 2000 mm for Akiites area, and 1000 and 2200 mm for Kasewe 
area (Jaetzold and Schmidt, 1982) . Annual mean temperature 

ranges between 16.2 and 20.5
o
C for Riana area, 20.5 and 21.7

o
C 

for Oyani area, 22 and 27
o
C for Mabole area, 21 and 22

o
C for 

Akiites area, and 20 and 21.5
o
C for Kasewe area (Jaetzold and 

Schmidt, 1982). 

 

Survey method 
 
A cross-section survey using structured questionnaire was used to 
collect data from 130 agro- input dealers randomly selected from 40 

markets from 13 districts. Data collection was done between the 
months of February and November 2005. 

 

Parameters investigated 
 
Among others, the main variables on which data were collected 
were the agro-inputs sold, quantity of different inputs (different 
types of fertilizers, seeds, farm tools, etc.) stocked, prices at which 
different inputs were sold, distances from where different inputs 
were sourced, additional farm services offered to farmers, cons-
traints and challenges faced by the agro- input dealers, and the 
policies and institutional frameworks which the agro-input dealers 
would like to see implemented in order to enhance their efficiency 
and areas of coverage in timely provision of farm services to the 
smallholder farmers, including those in far rural areas. 

 
 
 
 

 
Data entry and analysis 
 
Microsoft Excel was used for data entry. Online distance calculator 
(ODC), based on the World Geodetic System WGS84 (DMA, 1991) 
ellipsoid, was used to estimate distances between input selling and 
purchasing points. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 11.5 
(SPSS, 2002). The World Geodetic System reference coordinate 
frames were established more than a decade ago to facilitate 
mapping, charting, positioning and navigation applications. 
 

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

 

Trends in the number of agro-input dealers in 

Western Kenya 
 
The services of agro-input dealers are critical to farmers‟ 
access to affordable quantities of appropriate farm inputs 
in their local environments. Between 2003 and 2005, the 
increase in number of agro-input dealers ranged from 2% 
(for seed treatment chemicals) to 22% (mineral fertilizers) 
with a mean of 16% across agro-inputs (Table 1). The 
difference in the magnitude of percent increase (between 
2003 and 2005) in the number of agro- input dealers sell-
ing different inputs reflects the demand for different agro-
input in the farming systems of Western Kenya. Although 
many farmers were yet to be reached with the various 
farm services of the agro-input dealers, the trend in the 
growth of the number of agro-input dealers is encour-
aging, especially considering the current sub-Saharan 
Africa wide low level of infrastructure development in 
support of good network of private agro-input dealers and 
the usual period of slow, gradual growth before expe-
riencing a period of relatively dramatic and rapid growth 
that characterize a typical technology adoption process 
(Surrey, 1997). For instance, the kilometers of paved 
roads per million people in selected African countries are 
59 for DR-Congo, 66 for Ethiopia, 94 for Uganda, 114 for 
Tanzania, 141 for Mozambique, 230 for Nigeria, 494 for 
Ghana, 637 for Guinea, 1402 for South Africa, 1586 for 
Zimbabwe compared to 20,987 for USA, 12,673 for 
France and 9,102 for Japan and with 1,064 for Brazil, 
1,004 for India and 803 for China (Encyclopedia 
Britannica, 2003) (Table 1). 
 

 

Farm inputs stocked 

 

Altogether, the agro-input dealers surveyed sold about 
2357 bags (or about 118 tons) of mineral fertilizers 
annually (Table 2). The corresponding figure for improved 
seeds was about 10 tons. The average for the liquid agro-
chemicals ranges from about 490 litres (for herbi-cides) to 
about 1600 litres (for seed treatment chemicals) (Table 
2).  

Table 2 clearly shows the low demand that agro-input 

dealers ranked second to high cost of transport among 
the constraints and challenges that they face in trying to 

provide inputs to smallholder farmers. Coupled with the 



  
 
 

 
Table 1. Number of agro-input dealers selling different farm inputs in Western Kenya: 2003 - 

2005. 
 

 Number of input dealers
#
 % Increase 

Agro-input 2003 2004 2005 (2003-2005) 

Mineral fertilizers 245 276 299 22 

Insecticides 314 351 372 19 

Farm Machinery 69 78 82 19 

Herbicides 61 67 72 18 

Fungicide 234 255 275 18 

Improved seeds 176 189 198 13 

Storage chemical 244 263 271 11 

Seed treatment chemicals 43 43 44 2 

Total across inputs     

(not mutually exclusive) 1498 1643 1742 16 
 

#
Responses was collated for different input brands within each agro-input category. Hence, for 

some inputs, the number of dealers is more than the sample size because of the grouping together 
of similar inputs. 

 

 
Table 2. Mean quantity of different farm inputs sold by agro-input dealers in 

Western Kenya: 2003 – 2005. 
 

Agro-input Quantity n* 

Mineral fertilizers (bags) 2357.0 383 

Improved seeds (kg) 10144.0 186 

Fungicide (litres) 416.5 299 

Insecticides (litres) 671.0 273 

Storage chemicals (litres) 868.0 223 

Herbicides (litres) 491.2 69 

Seed treatment chemicals (litres) 1616.0 46 

Machinery (units of different tools)
#
 236.3 17 

Other farm implements (units of different tools)
&
 187.7 17 

 
*Each input category included several specific input brands; hence n was larger than 
number of agro-input dealers 
#
Machinery here includes: tractors, sprayers, and spare parts. 

&
Other farm implements here include: long hoes, short hoes and cutlasses 

 

 

usually high prices of most agro-inputs, these constrain 
the development of efficient farm input distribution sys-
tems and are fed into by farmers‟ inability to sell their 
farm surplus produce at high prices, especially immedi-
ately after harvest. This situation contributes to poor land 
stewardship, accelerated land degradation, decline in 
household welfare, and negatively affects farmer invest-
ments in farm inputs and returns to agricultural production 
(Bashaasha, 2001). To break the cycle of high input 
price, low input demand, the need to stimulate a huge 
increase in input demand is critical. This requires 
reduction in input prices (through economies of size, new 
institutional arrangements, etc.) at the farm-level, credit 
availability to farmers for the purchase of agro-inputs, and 
attractive prices for farm produce (Table 2). 

 
 

 

Other farm services that input dealers provide to 

farmers in Western Kenya 
 
Only 2 – 11% of the agro-input dealers surveyed provi-
ded other services to small-scale farmers. Farm services 
most commonly provided by the farm input dealers were 
information [especially related to agrochemicals (24% of 
respondents) and improved varieties of seeds (22%)]. 
The least important farm services that dealers provided 
farmers included credit and spraying services. Twenty-
seven agro-input dealers (or 18% of the respondents) 
provided farmers with credit services. However, only 
three agro-input dealers (about 2% of all respondents) 
provided farmers with spraying services. It is little surpris-
ing that only few agro-input dealers provided credit to 



 
 
 

 
Table 3. Number of farmers who benefited (according to dealers) from different other farm 

services given by agro-input dealers in Western Kenya. 
 

 Number of farmers that benefited from service* 

Other agro-input service Female Male 

Input packaging 3100 (2) 15000 (2) 

Soil suitability information 796 (7) 3650 (7) 

Soil fertility information 787 (7) 3645 (7) 

Seed variety information 656 (13) 2656 (12) 

Agrochemicals information 735 (14) 2328 (13) 

Credit facilities 255 (12) 298 (12) 

Spraying
&
 30 (3) 75 (3) 

 
*Values in parenthesis are effective sample sizes of agro-input dealers who offered serviced 
&
 Free and at cost

 

 
 
 
 

P
e

rc
e

n
ta

g
e

 d
e

a
le

rs
 

 
 

 

60   
50 
 
40 
 
30 
 
20 
 
10 
 

0  
High Low deamnd Lack of Lack of Limited 

transport cost  market storage business 
  information facilities knowledge 

 
Constraint 

 
Figure 1. Business constraints faced by agro-input dealers in Western Kenya. 

 

 

smallholder farmers since many of the traders them-
selves lacked access to financial resources beyond their 
own savings and income (Yanggen et al., 1998). This is 
critical especially considering that farm inputs such as 
fertilizer are expensive to market (high storage and 
transport costs) and to purchase and underscore the fact 
that both the input-dealers and farmers lack access to 
critical service markets (especially credit markets). This is 
a typical example of how the private sector growth is 
constrained by a weak enabling environment.  

It is critical that credit guarantees are used to link farm 
input manufacturing companies with agro-input dealers. 
Successful instances of smallholder farmer adoption of 
technologies (e.g., in Malawi) have demonstrated the 
importance of credit as an important enabling factor.  

The above information was gender disaggregated to 
provide a better understanding of the distribution of farm 
services by input dealers. Agro-input buyers (mostly 
farmers) benefited through input packaging. Data from 
the agro-input dealers show that of about 18100 custo-
mers (farmers) that benefited from this service, about 
83% were male farmers. Although only a few of the 
surveyed agro-input dealers gave an estimate of the 

 
 

 

farmers that benefited from their other farm services, it is 
striking that in 100% of the cases, more male farmers 
than female farmers benefited from the farm services of 
agro-input dealers (Table 3). This was the case for both 
free farm services (e.g., some aspects of the spraying 
services) and the services that were paid for. This is 
generally expected because, compared to their male 
counterparts female farmers are less likely to have 
contact with agro-input dealers due to their more limited 
financial resources than male farmers. 
 

 

Business incentives and constraints 

 

The agro-input dealers surveyed generally lacked busi-
ness support and faced about five major business con-
straints including high transport cost (mostly due to poor 
infrastructure), low demand, lack of market information, 
lack of storage facilities, and limited business skill and 
knowledge (Figure 1). The high cost of transport must 
have been due to the long average distance covered (and 
many hours‟ drive away) by agro-input dealers to source 
their goods. This shows how infrastructural cha- 



  
 
 

 
Table 4. Mean distances (Km) traveled by agro-input dealers to acquire 

selected farm inputs. 
 

Input Distance (Km) 

Improved seeds 112.6 (97) 

Storage chemicals 99.7 (22) 

Farm machineries 92.8 (350) 

Other agro-chemicals (herbicides, pesticides, etc.) 86.3 (71) 

Mineral fertilizers 79.5 (182) 
 

Values in parenthesis refer to the number of sourcing distance included in 

determining the statistics in the table. 
 

 
Table 5. Correlation between distance from where traders 

sourced farm inputs and the selling price. 
 

Input Correlation 

Murate of potash 1.000** 

Improved millet seeds 1.000** 

Tractor 1.000** 

Thiram 0.574* 

NPK fertilizers 0.543 

Improved sorghum seeds 0.209 

Urea fertilizer 0.19 

Improved seeds of common bean 0.174 

Improved maize varieties 0.014 
 

Source: Computed from survey data, 2005 
 

 

llenges undermine farmers‟ access to necessary farm 
inputs, food security, and impede growth. Poor domestic 
infrastructure (in much of Africa) and limited access to 
agricultural credit (including seasonal credit) also 
undermine the effect and equitable participation of many 
African countries in world trade. Africa‟s road density was 
less than India‟s in 1960 (Sanchez, 2005). All these 
explain why the farm gate prices of inputs are generally 
high and why many smallholder farmers use few 
purchased inputs. The result of a recent study on fertilizer 
supply chains suggests that lowest fertilizer prices occur 
in areas where the retail outlet is developed (Chemonics, 
2007). Kelly et al. (2003) earlier identified the serious 
deficiencies in roads, education, market information 
systems, and supportive institutions as the major limi-
tations that need to be addressed by governments to 
expand farm input use, increase agricultural productivity 
and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farm families 
in SSA. Recently (June 2006), an Africa Fertilizer Summit 
declared that the Africa Union Member States should, 
among others, take specific actions to improve farmer 
access to market information. This is in line with the 
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Pro-
gramme (CAADP)‟s Pillar II agenda, which seeks to 
improve Africa‟s infrastructure and trade-related capac-
ities for market access.  

In western Kenya, the distance from agro-input mar- 

 
 

 

keting points to paved roads ranged from 0 (where 
market is next to a paved road) to 3 km. However, the 
distance (km) that agro-input dealers had to travel to 
source the farm inputs sold ranged from 20 km to over 
300 km, indicating a more or less inaccessible distance. 
For specific farm inputs, the mean agro-input sourcing 
distance ranged from about 80 km (inorganic fertilizers) to 
113 km (improved seed varieties) (Table 4). All these, 
coupled with the poor state of most of the road and 
market infrastructure in Western Kenya, explain the high 
cost of transport that ranked highest among the business 
constraints facing agro-input dealers in the area. It also 
explains the lack of access to timely and affordable farm 
inputs by most of the smallholder farmers. Under these 
situations, the inputs may be available but still far from 
the reach of the farmers because of high prices caused 
by many factors including “excessive” profit margins 
being asked for by agro-input dealers. All these again 
underscores the need to improve the existing rural 
infrastructure, and build and develop new ones in most 
parts of SSA, a prerequisite for increasing the access of 
rural farmers to farm inputs at affordable prices and for 
increasing agricultural productivity, farm incomes, and 
general improvements in the livelihoods of the people 
Table 4.  

Our analysis shows a positive correlation between the 
price at which agro-input dealers were willing to sell farm 
inputs and input sourcing distances. However, the 
magnitude of the correlation coefficient varied with agro-
inputs. For instance, the sourcing distances and selling 
prices of Muriate of Potash (MoP), improved millet seeds, 
and tractors had a perfect correlation. Other correlations 
range from 0.014 (for improved varieties of maize) to 
0.574 (for Thiram) (Table 5). This result shows that in-
creasing the networks and percent coverage by the main 
distributors of different agro-inputs are important ways of 
getting farm inputs closer to the poor and has a great 
potential to reduce the unit price at which farm inputs are 
sold to the resource limited farmers in rural communities 
of SSA. This is an important step towards developing 
rural small-scale agro-input dealers. The question then is 
„how to provide the necessary incentives (e.g., tax incen-
tives) for the main agro-input distributors to increase the 
networks through which they supply agro-inputs to the 



 
 
 

 

retailers that ultimately sell to the smallholder farmers in 

distant and far flung rural communities‟. Both policy sup-

port and infrastructural development are critical issues 
that must be addressed (Table 5). 

 

Frameworks agro-input dealers would want to see 

implemented 
 
Sustainable expansion of the areas of coverage by agro-
input dealers for increased access of smallholder farmers 
to farm inputs is critical. How to arrive at this desirable 
situation was assessed from the point of view of the agro-
input dealers. They were asked about the policy and 
institutional frameworks they would want to see imple-
mented to enhance the environment for a sustainable 
expansion of their areas of coverage and the access of 
smallholder farmers to farm inputs. The most important 
areas where agro-input dealers would want to see 
improvements were training on agro-input business 
(29%); enhanced access to credit and loans to enable 
them purchase more goods (21%); agricultural extension, 
research, and infrastructure development (15%); tax 
incentives and reduction (14%); illegal trade and 
adulteration (13%); and input supply management (8%). 
These would provide some incentives for them to take the 
risk implied in supplying farm inputs to many farmers in 
remote rural communities. The major institutions that 
agro-input dealers felt should intervene to remove their 
business constraints were the government (48%) 
(Facilitate access to credit and loans, tax reduction, and 
input quality control) and the Universities and research 
institutions (26%) (Provide various training support). 
Overall, it is important to note that the government is 
extremely important when it comes to price (including 
farm input price) reduction mechanisms.  

We also examined the relationship between all the 
policy-related interventions (training of farmers, agro-
input dealers, agricultural extension personnel; giving 
credit to farmers and agro-input dealers; price and tax 
reduction; curbing illegal trade and licensing; supply 
management; provision of agricultural extension services; 
supporting market research; etc.) and all the institution-
related interventions (market cleanliness; customer care, 
agro-vet services in market, Government framework and 
institutions such as the Ministry of Agriculture and 
KEPHIS; Formation of cooperatives; Financial institu-
tions, etc.) proposed by the agro-input dealers using 
multivariate correspondence analysis. However, it is 
important to note that the division is our own creation 
aimed at increasing our understanding of the data. 
Correspondence analysis helps to find a dimensional 
representation of the dependence between categories of 
variables in a two-way contingency table (Hair et al., 
1995). Multivariate correspondence analysis was con-
ducted to relate the areas of policy interventions 
suggested by the agro-input dealers and institutions that 
they felt were in the best position to handle the situation. 

 
 
 
 

 

As expected, the result shows that both the policy-related 
interventions and the institution-related interventions were 
significantly correlated (Pearson Chi- Square-208. 504, df 
= 100, p = 0.000). The agro-input dealers who proposed 
training and credit and loans as a means to improve agro- 
input marketing also proposed govern-ment departments 
as the expected main actor. Government was also the 
main organization that was suggested to deal with illegal 
trading and adulteration of agro- inputs and improve 
marketing efficiency. The agro-input dealers who 
proposed the need to improve trans-portation, suggested 
road improvement policies, and they were also 
associated with those who proposed extension policies 
and chemical distribution institutions and im-proved 
supply policies.  

Agro- input dealers who proposed tax reduction and the 
curbing of illegal agro-input trade and adulteration pro-
posed Kenya Revenue Authority as the best institution 
that could deal with the situation. Government role is 
important in promoting the expansion of input use (Kelly 
at al., 2003). The first dimension (horizontal axis) of the 
solution is related to road improvement and the curbing of 
illegal input trading and adulteration with contributions 
from extension and the university. The second axis 
(vertical axis) is related to training policies and favorable 
loan policies with government and Kenya Revenue 
Authority intervention as indicated by contribution of 
points to inertia of dimensions, which are equivalent to 
the interpretation of loadings in a principal component 
analysis (PCA) for numeric data reduction. The sugges-
tions of input dealers were found to be in tandem with 
those proposed by Kelly et al. (2003), including the need 
of government to invest in rural infrastructure (roads, 
markets, storage facilities, etc), education, agriculture 
research and extension and market information systems. 
Government, training, and loan provision were closely 
related as policies and institutions. 
 
 
Conclusions and way forward 

 

The study shows that although the number of agro-inputs 
dealers in Western Kenya has been growing, the growth 
is still a far cry from what is required to ensure that 
smallholder farmers, especially those in far away rural 
communities, have adequate access to agro-inputs. 
Besides, apart from limited business incentives, most of 
the agro-input dealers in the study area face numerous 
other problems (e.g., infrastructural challenges, low 
demand) in their businesses that hamper efficient agro-
input supply to smallholder rural farm households. Most 
of the agro-input dealers still travel long distances to 
source different agro-inputs – a situation that has con-
tinued to result in high farm- level (or farm gate) prices for 
farm inputs. The problem of high unit price of agro- inputs 
is compounded by the fact that credit services were rarely 
provided to smallholder farmers by the agro- input 
dealers who themselves lack adequate working capital 



 
 
 

 

for increased stocking of agro-inputs. Besides, only very 
few agro-input dealers (2 – 11%) were in a position to 
provide small-scale farmers with other services (espe-
cially input-related information).  

The fact that agro-input dealers faced numerous cons-
traints (high transport costs, low demand, lack of market, 
limited market information, lack of storage facilities, and 
limited skills and knowledge) is particularly worrisome 
because most of these are serious problems of 
infrastructure that require strong political will to address. 
This shows the void preventing the private sector from 
fully taking up farm input supply functions, in spite of the 
on-going market liberalization aimed at de-emphasizing 
government control of businesses and encouragement of 
the private sector to take over such business under-
takings for increased efficiency. Policy and institutional 
environment conducive to private agro-inputs dealer 
operations and investment are, therefore, of paramount 
importance to efficient agro-input market development in 
Western Kenya and similar environments in SSA. A 
similar measure is also needed on limited business skill 
and knowledge, especially considering that knowledge 
reduces risk and increases rewards.  

As a way forward, government policy and institutional 

intervention (in areas such as: reducing the risks that the 

private sector face in rural markets, improving road and 

other infrastructure, developing and extending credit and 

loans to agro- input dealers and their networks) are critical in 

stimulating the input supply sector and in effectively ushering 

in sustainable green revolution in Africa. 
 
 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

 

We acknowledge the agro-input dealers for giving us their 

attention during data collection. 
 
 
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