Bridging Farmer Education Needs and Satisfaction in Climate-Smart Agricultural Extension Events in Bungoma County, Kenya

Agricultural expos emerge as dynamic platforms for farmer education, bridging gaps in traditional extension services and fostering participatory learning. This paper explores feedback from a collaborative event between the Eastern Africa Grain Council and Kibabii University designed to promote Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices among farmers through field demonstrations, and showcased innovative agricultural technologies. The objectives were; to examine how the agribusiness expo contributed to farmer education, assess the extent to which the expo influenced farmer perception of modern technologies and practices, and identify challenges and opportunities for enhancing the effectiveness of future expos. The feedback questionnaire captured both quantitative and qualitative data from a total of 134 participants across multiple sub-counties within Bungoma County in November 2025. The analysis revealed that women comprised 57.4% of participants, highlighting their central role in Bungoma County's farming landscape. Overall, 75.8% of the participant farmers practiced mixed farming, which should inform future program design to address both crop and livestock dimensions. The farmers were primarily interested in practical, accessible innovations - particularly improved seeds, organic inputs, and conservation agriculture. High input cost was flagged as the key challenge in the production process; they desired targeted content for livestock farmers and youth participants, to strengthen the impact of future expos. A reliability test conducted to measure the internal consistency of the survey items returned a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.639 ≥ 0.60, suggesting that the instruments collectively measured a related dimension of expo satisfaction with 90.3% of respondents expressing willingness to attend future expos on Climate Smart Agriculture. This initiative between the two institutions supports the thrust of UN Sustainable Development Goals 2,13 & 17, and highlights the potential of collaborative frameworks to enhance rural livelihoods, address environmental concerns, and promote circular economy practices.

Agribusiness Expos, Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), Farmer Education, Conservation Agriculture

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