Variety awareness, nutrition knowledge and adoption of nutritionally enhanced crop varieties: Evidence from Kenya

Davis Nguthi Muthini, Jonathan Makau Nzuma & Rose Adhiambo Nyikal

Abstract
This paper evaluates the impact of variety awareness and nutrition knowledge on the adoption of biofortified crop varieties using a sample of 661 households from Kisii and Nyamira counties in Kenya. The study employs the average treatment effect (ATE) framework to control for information on the KK15 bean variety and knowledge of its nutritional attributes among small-scale farmers. The results show that farmers who had knowledge of the nutritional attributes of KK15 beans were more likely to adopt relative to those who were only aware of the variety. A nutrition attribute knowledge gap of 8% was estimated, which represents the potential adoption loss due to a lack of knowledge of the nutritional benefits. Adoption of biofortified crops can therefore be improved by disseminating information on the varieties and their nutritional attributes. This can be achieved by entrenching nutrition information in extension packages disseminated to farmers.