Review of Innovative Agricultural Market Creation in Africa and the Study of Three-tier Model for Soybean Development and Promotion in Kenya

Agricultural market creation was critical for rural growth in Africa. How to achieve this based on crops other than major staples (e.g. maize) and traditional export crops (e.g., tea, coffee, cotton) remained a problem since most African countries did not give them policy attention. This study used a three-tier-model, developed based on successful strategies in Nigeria and Zimbabwe, to develop multi-level soybean market creation in Kenya. Data were from secondary sources, formal and informal interviews, farm-level data, and participant observations. Analysis was carried out using Microsoft Excel and SPSS. Result showed increasing in farmers’ confidence to produce, process, consume, and sell more soybeans than before. Trained farmers’ groups were developing new soybean products for cash, poverty reduction and improvements in livelihoods. Net returns had been increased from 4 to 14 times from processed products. Selected farmers’ groups had begun to supply large-scale processors with soybean grains, substituting imports. The overall project’s impact on number of participating farmer groups and the actual land area devoted to soybean cultivation ranged from a factor of 2.3 to a factor of 77.4 between the long rainy seasons of 2005 / 2006 and the short rainy seasons of 2009. Farmers had given testimonies on live improvements.