Abstract:
Poverty is increasing in rural areas of Kenya. The study examined factors influencing vulnerability of French
beans farmers to expected poverty using Vulnerability to Expected Poverty approach on 492 randomly selected
respondents. The study found a mean vulnerability to expected poverty of 19.6% which is below vulnerability
threshold of 50% indicating that majority of French bean farmers irrespective of Global-GAP certification status
were invulnerable to expected poverty. However, majority of those who were expenditure (56.3 percent) and
income poor (92.2 percent) are vulnerable to future poverty. Factors influencing vulnerability to expected poverty
are asset value (P=0.000), net crop income (P=0.000), off-farm income (P=0.000), household size (P=0.000), age
of household head (p = 0.088), gender of household head (P=0.001) and distance to market (P=0.000). French
beans farmers should practice farm diversification and expand acreage under Global-GAP certified French beans
in order to increase income and expenditure and hence alleviate future poverty.
