Smallholder Choice of Compliance Arrangements: The Case GlobalGAP adoption by French Bean Farmers in Kirinyaga, Mbooni and Buuri/Laikipia Districts

Holticultural crops such as fruits and vegetables are commonly grown in Sub-Saharan Africa by smallholder farmers as a way to increase export earnings and create jobs in order to reduce poverty levels.These opportunities presented by horticultural crops to smallholder farmers have been retarded by increased public and private food safety standards. GlobalGAP is one such standard, which posseses a threat to smallholder farmer’s welfare by undermining their ability to compete in the market. This paper assesses smallholder choice of compliance arrangements with GlobalGAP standards adoption among smallholder french bean farmers in Kirinyaga, Mbooni and Buuri/Laikipia districts. Three Multinomial logit models were run to obtain information on the estimated coefficients and marginal effects of independent variables and dependent variables and their p values. Findings were that extension services, input and credit subsidies and group formation should be encouraged to reduce costs of compliance among smallholder farmers.Policy to ensure reduced transaction and production costs such as government provision of conducive investment environment for NGO’s and exporters that support French bean farmers should be availed