Environmental hazards in African agriculture: factors influencing application of agrochemicals in Nakuru district, Kenya

This paper uses data from a 2003 survey of farming households in Nakuru, Kenya. The objectives were: to establish the quantities of agrochemicals applied as compared to recommendations thus detecting under use or over dose and to explore the factors influencing the applications of agrochemicals to see how far those factors can be manipulated to contribute to better implementation of integrated pest management (IPM) and integrated plant nutrition systems (IPNS). Both descriptive statistics and a decomposed tobit model were used. Two separate models for fertilizer and fungicides were estimated. Results indicate that a greater elasticity of application of fertilizer would be generated more by expected levels of application and less by marginal changes in the amounts applied. The greater influence to apply would come from those expected to gain any experience in tomato production and less from unit changes in length of experience. For the fungicides model, the person who makes the decision has a strong influence in the increase of application of fungicides. Implications for policy are drawn.