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The study will be conducted along the Kisii highlands in Nyamira district that is one of the 12
districts of Nyanza province. It lies within the administrative location of Kitutu Central.
According to the Nyamira district development plan of 2008-2012 document (GoK,2009c)
Nyamira district borders Borabu district to the Southeast, Manga to the Southwest, Buret district
to the East, Kisii Central District to the West and Rachuonyo District to the North. It covers an
area of 396.2 square Km; it has 4 divisions, 13 locations and 38 sub-locations and two local
authorities.

Nyamira district is a densely populated area, predominately remote and comprises of small farm
holdings. The district¶s vegetation is green throughout the year due to adequate rains experienced
in the district, though it has deteriorated over the years due to environmental degradation.
Agriculture production is the main source of income and employment. The agricultural sub-
sector has employed more than 45,314 people with more than 6,650 hectares under cash crop and
19,900 hectares under food crops. Farm activities comprise of small-scale farming of maize,
bananas, avocados and cash crops such tea, coffee and pyrethrum. The districts population is
estimated to be 311,032. The labour force aged between 15-64 years constitutes the
economically active population in the district that is 52% of the districts population. Nyamira
town which is also the district headquarter, has basic infrastructures like water, electricity and
housing that has attracted people, thus greatly influencing the settlement patterns in the district.
The movement of people to Nyamira town has however strained the available limited
infrastructural facilities. It is however important to curb the trend of migration in the district, due
to the migration of male to other parts of the country like the neighbouring districts in search of
development as compared to the female. In this case there is need for more investments in the
districts to reduce the imbalances between the female and male (GoK, 2009c:5, 7&10).

Agricultural activities in this district have contributed to migration of workers. Most of the
farmers are engaged in seasonal labour and trade of surplus food crops. The tea farms in this
district hosts a number of migrant workers from other districts who depend on tea industry for
their livelihood. The Tea farmers in this region and a number of the rural folks in the village are
turning to wage labour in nearby towns to supplement farming income. In any case most labour
is seasonal and associated with farm production, and therefore this gives reasons as to why the
villagers move in search of better employment to generate income.

The study will concentrate in Kiogutwa sub-locatio. The choice of the area is because it
constitutes a convergence of important agro-ecological zones, tea-dairy zones and maize zones.
Familiarity, accessibility and language also play an important role in the choice of the study
location. Located in overpopulated district in Kiogutwa sub-location, Tombe¶s is small village
and has high poverty levels that almost wholly depend on agriculture as the source of livelihood,
tea farming being the main. Land scarcity and segmentation, poor infrastructures such as roads,
also lack of transportation means is a major problem in the areas. The area has a tea factory,
known as Tombe tea factory that is among one of the KTDA managed factories. The factory is
able to handle a capacity of 17-18 million Kg of green leaf per year. Currently there are a total of
25,000 registered small-scale tea growers served by the factory (KTDA, 2011). The local labour
market is very small in this area, and is mainly in the tea factory. This scenario provides an
opportunity to determine how rural-urban migration affects the agricultural development.

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Given that this study intends to investigate the impact of rural-urban migration on agricultural
development, it will employ a qualitative data collection method and case study methods. This
method will facilitate in-depth gathering of information aimed at explaining, the characteristics
of those who migrate to the urban areas; the reasons that make people from the rural areas to
migrate to the urban areas; how rural-urban migration has affected the agricultural development
among the small-scale farmers in the rural areas; if migration leads to labour shortages; if
migration leads to use of hired labour among the small-scale rural farmers; if the people who
migrate to the urban areas remit some of their income to the rural areas and how the remitted
income is being utilized. The focus will be in the small-scale farming in Kiogutwa location.

The qualitative data will be gathered to validate certain causal variables as well as find
information on facts, mind-sets and awareness (Berg 1989:14) of family members of migrants
with regards to rural-urban migration. Inherently, the research will merge descriptive and
exploratory methods of data collection. Moreover, these combinations will hopefully eliminate
traces of biasness because they will complement each other (Marvasti, 2004:11). Adapting an
inquisitorial approach in collecting information will be helpful sine the nature of the study
dictates preference of this method mainly because it will reveal the meticulousness of the effects
of migration on agriculture.

Case study which is a valuable method for research will be used to enable one to examine the
data within a specific context, allowing the exploration and understanding of intricate issues, in
relation to rural-urban migrations and agricultural development. Using this method will enable to
make a clear investigation when the boundaries between the happenings and circumstances are
not clearly evident (Yin, 1984:23). Case studies have been criticised by some as lack of scientific
rigour and reliability and that they do not address the issues of generalizability. There is also a
tendency for a researcher to have a biased interpretation of the data. However it will provide
holistic and in-depth explanations of the social problems in question; in doing so the researcher
is able to understand the behavioural conditions through the actor¶s perspective ( Zainal, 2007).

The specific data collection methods that will be used will be an amalgamation of observations,
Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), descriptive case studies to the chosen population study. This
will assist in answering the research question set at the onset of this study. In addition these
methods will complement findings from different methods for the rationale of corroboration of
findings and consequently minimise biases in using a lone method (Marvasti, 2004: 15). The
core of this research will be the accounts of the small-scale farmers in the village and the
households.

These choices will be advantageous since qualitative and case study methods allow the author to
participate in and understanding the insight of key informants in addition to unveiling the
interviewees¶ perspectives (Berg, 1989:9) on migration. The use of case study method allows the
researcher also to examine the data within a specific context.

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The study will target the small-scale farmers in Tombe. The researcher will limit the study to
individuals who pass to meet the following criteria:
 iV jver 18 years of age

iV Kenyan Citizen

iV Small-scale farmer

iV Resident of Tombe

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The study will employ a random sampling method to choose the informants from the larger
target population, Tombe village, in Nyamira District. The sample target group will be chosen
randomly with a family member as the key informant. The sample is a small but a representative
of the small-scale farming in the community of Tombe. The sample of nearly 30 small-scale
farmers out of approximately 600 small-scale farmers represented logically the impacts of
migration on agricultural development in the community and in most parts of rural Kenya. In
doing so, the researcher will use case study method on 10 selected households based on their
gender (male or female), education level, class (rich, middle and poor) and age and who meet the
criteria of being a small-scale farmers. The location chief and field extension officer will be used
to assist in mobilizing Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) for the small-scale farmers in the
village. The FGDs, 20 small-scale farmers will be used; it will comprise of a total between 8-10
farmers in a group, and will be conducted in different areas in the village. Deliberative efforts
will be made to ensure that the FGDs comprise of men, women and the youth.

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Data collection is obtained from primary and secondary sources. The secondary data is obtained
from published books and journals, online databases and resources, and information about the
current agricultural farming production and state is obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture
and the Kenya Bureau of Statistics. Primary data collection involves qualitative and case study
methods, which will involve FGDs semi-structured interviews and individual case studies.

These data collection methods will be used and will employ both premeditated and mostly
uncontrolled general questions. In case study method it usually selects a small geographical areas
and a limited number of individuals as the subjects of study, in this case then my sample will be
small and also the targeted location is small in nature. A sample of 20 small-scale farmers will be
used in a FGDs semi-structured interview and 10 small-scale farmer households will be used in
form of individual case studies. This will enable one to find out the effects of rural-urban
migration on the agricultural development, based on their socio-economic demographic
characteristics, the migration patterns of their family members, labour force, income remittances
and the production and growth of the agricultural farms and to be able to understand the actors¶
perspectives in relation to this issue at hand.V

Interviews being one of the most important sources of case study methods will be accompanied
with note taking and recording of audio voices while the interviews are going on. These will
facilitate data collection and analysis: and the organization of the qualitative data will depend in
part on what the data looks like (Berg, 2007:46).V

Questions used in a semi-structured interview as employed in the study methodology can reflect
awareness that individuals understand the world in varying ways. For the FGDs they are useful
either as a standalone data gathering strategy or a line of action in a triangulated project and
research tends to learn more through the discussions (Berg, 2007:95 &144).

The employment of interviews will also allow the researcher to seek for clarity on complex or
unclear subjects presented by the informants and respondents. Face to face interviews will also
enable the researcher clarify unclear questions to the respondents, as well as offer the
opportunity to introduce the topic and its relevance. The use of both FGDs and case study
methods will verify its authenticity V

The researcher will also take advantage of this meeting to sub-consciously pick the various
underlying themes and common concepts surrounding the effects of rural-urban migration on
agricultural development.



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Collected data will be analyzed qualitatively. Qualitative data and case studies will be analyzed
right from the field. The qualitative data gathered from this study will be analyzed through
coding, categorizing and labelling the major themes in exhaustively category. The coding will be
done after which analyses will proceed based on the emerging themes. The study findings will be
reported based on the research questions and objectives. jn the discussion topics will comprise,
who participates, the dynamics of participation among others, and on the final part policy
recommendations based on the findings shall be made.




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1.V What is your age and highest level of education attained?

2.V Are you the head of the household and what is the total of the household members?

3.V What it the size of land owned (acres) and how much of it is used in land size?

4.V Do you depend on agricultural farming as your main source of livelihood?

5.V How has been the agricultural farm produce before as compared to now?

6.V What factors have affected the agricultural farm produce?

7.V Do you have any family member who has migrated in the urban areas? And why did they
migrate?

8.V Did the migrants contribute in any way in the agricultural farming? Has there movement
affected your agricultural farm output?

9.V Do you use hired labour in your farm? And is it easy to get the people to hire?

10.VDo you receive any money from relatives or families who migrated to the urban areas?
How do you use the money?

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1.V What is the main source of income in this area?

2.V What is the current state of farm production as compared to the past?

3.V What factors have affected the agricultural farm produce?

4.V How is the migration pattern in this area? And is the migration pattern high or low?

5.V What has made the people in this area to migrate to the urban areas (town/cities)?

6.V In terms of gender, do we have more men or women migrating to urban areas? In terms
of age, do we have mostly young or older people migrating to urban area?

7.V Has the labour force in the farm been affected by the movement of people?
 8.V Do most farmers in this area use hired labour, during the harvesting and planting?

9.V Do you receive money from family members who migrated to the urban areas and how
do you use the money that you receive from the migrants?

10.VHow many of you are being remitted some money by family members who migrated in
the urban areas? How is the remitted money being utilized?

11.VWhat kinds of farm inputs are being used in the farm? And are they costly?

12.VAre the farm incomes used to purchase farm inputs?

c


GoK 2005, National Development Plan 2002-2008, Effective m

  


 
 
 
  
, Government Printer, Nairobi

Berg,B 1989,      m 

 
 
, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon

Berg, B.L 2007,      m 

 
 
, 6th Edition , Pearson:Allyn and
Bacon

Marvasti, A 2004,      


 

  
, London: Sage Publications

Yin, R.K 1984, Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Beverly Hills, Calif: Sage Publications

Zainal, Z 2007, Case Study as a Research Method, Jurnal Kemanusiaan Bil.9, June 2007, Retrieved on
10th March 2011
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