PERFORMANCE OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Agricultural production is a crucial driver of socio-economic development. Agricultural production improves household’s income through the sale of farm produce and at the same time it improves household nutrition level as household can access a diverse variety of foods such as meat, milk, meat and eggs. This study examined the performance of poverty alleviation programmes and socio-economic development: a case of Caritas International in Homa Bay County within Kenya. The independent variable under study was crop development. The study was anchored by the empowerment theory and supported by the restricted opportunity theory. The study adopted the descriptive study design to describe the social and economic characteristics of the target population. The target population was 1,142 household heads out of which through stratified random sampling, 92 respondents were selected to be part of the study sample. Proportionate sampling was then employed to ensure that the three sub counties under study were proportionately represented in the sample. The data was collected through questionnaire. Data analysis was done through the use of Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) version 29. Descriptive and inferential statistics were generated to help in summarizing data to aid in making meaningful conclusions and recommendations. Tables, charts and percentages were used to present the summarized data. The findings of this study reveal that crop development enhances household nutrition and on other hand surplus realized from production is a source of income which can be used for investment in education, descent housing and access to better healthcare services. This study recommends that the national and county governments should supplement the efforts already made by Caritas in alleviating poverty through crop development. There is need for providing more resources to the poor households, so that crop production can be done in a large scale to enable commercialization. There is need to conduct a study on how land fragmentation affects household’s level of production in terms of technical efficiency of agriculture and the sustainability of food production system.