Abstract

As compared to other African countries, Kenya continues to depend on agriculture as source of food and for economic development. Horticulture forms the bulk of agriculture with potato being ranked first in the vegetable category in terms of production and value. It is a lucrative cash and food crop grown in many parts of Kenya. Molo Sub County being one of the regions where the crop is grown enjoys economic value in terms of income generation and food provision. Given the importance of the crop agricultural extension such as plant health clinic training services has a key role in enhancing production through training farmers in innovations on potato protection measures and production improvement. This study thus established the influence of plant health clinic training services on potato production among smallholder farmers in Molo Sub-County, Kenya. Through simple random sampling techniques and purposive sampling, 152 smallholder potato farmers and 10 key informants respectively were selected for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and interviews. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The type of training access, the relevance of training services, frequency of receiving training, modes of training, and use of training services were found as significant predictors variable influencing potato production at 0.05 significant level (p = 0.000, p = 0.000, p = 0.009, p = 0.000 and p = 0.000, respectively). The study recommends that adequate plant health clinic training services should be provided in potato production.

Key Words: Potato production, plant health clinic training services, multiple regression.