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Seasonality and farm/non-farm interactions in Western Kenya*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2012

Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt
Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Geography, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62 Lund, Sweden
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article considers the distributional consequences of seasonality by analysing the links between non-farm incomes, commercialisation within agriculture, and variations in consumption burdens and expenditures at the household level. The common focus in the literature on non-farm incomes as levellers of seasonality and sources of risk minimisation is complemented by perspectives which consider how seasonality affects and is handled by households depending on their broader livelihood situations. To this perspective is also added a consideration of in-kind transfers and transactions. The article uses a mixed methods approach, drawing on data from two villages in Western Kenya. The lack of non-farm sources of income and the variation over time in consumption burdens aggravate the seasonal aspects of the agricultural production cycle for poorer households. By contrast, the interaction between farm and non-farm sources of income enables wealthier households to profit from seasonality in relation to agricultural markets, while providing the basis for meeting both farm and non-farm expenditures.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

Special thanks are extended to Stephen Wambugu at the Department of Agribusiness and Marketing, Kenyatta University, who carried out research together with the author in Kenya. Charles Recha's assistance in the field was invaluable and for this I am very grateful. I also wish to thank Göran Djurfeldt and Steven Haggblade whose comments on different versions of the text are highly appreciated. In addition two anonymous reviewers provided a number of highly insightful comments and suggestions on the initial version of the article. The research was funded through support from the Swedish Research Council, and Sida's Research Council for Developing Countries.

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