Files

Abstract

This paper articulates perceptions of farmers on Egerton University’s community engagement activities as part of the results of a larger study commissioned by Transforming African Agricultural Universities to meaningfully contribute to Africa’s growth and development (TAGDev). It analyses the impact of the university-community engagement activities on rural households. Community engagement provides universities with unique opportunities of experiencing community needs first-hand, contributing towards meeting them; not only during the engagement activities, but also through producing graduates with relevant knowledge, skills and attitude and through conducting relevant research. A survey conducted through researcher-administered questionnaires, focus group discussions and interviews on purposively selected 84 beneficiaries of these community engagement activities revealed positive perceptions among farmers. The selected farmers practiced mixed farming with 98.8% growing maize as principal crop and 93.9% keeping cattle for milk production. On average, respondents had engaged with the university four times within the last five years. Almost all (98.8%) respondents engaged with the university to acquire new knowledge. Students facilitated most engagements (97%). Principal Component Analysis extracted five major benefits of these engagements; four of which were related to profitmaking and cost-cutting measures. Keeping farm records was the main component, explaining 55.1% of observed variance. However, follow-up was a major weakness of the university (87.6%). Designing a follow-up system embedded within the universitycommunity engagement framework would ensure sustainability of projects and develop long term relationships characterised by continuous exchange of information between universities and communities.

Details

PDF

Statistics

from
to
Export
Download Full History