PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND PERFORMANCE OF AGRICULTURAL PROJECTS IN NANDI COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

The agriculture sector has faced several challenges such as declining productivity and competitiveness, growing poverty, and food insecurity.  Multiple underlying factors were behind the poor performance including pervasive governance problems, weak infrastructure and economic services and policy, and legal and regulatory constraints. Agriculture is one of the most essential factors of Nandi’s economy although susceptible to risk of change and variability. Most small-scale farmers depend on natural resources for their production which affects them. There is reliance on rains for agricultural production and barely 3% of the households practice irrigation due to the lack of infrastructure and high implementation costs. Project management practices are routine ways of carrying out management, administrative activities, and decisions that are the usual or expected ways of directing and coordinating project resources to achieve project performance by completing a project within the constraints of time, budget, and quality. The general objective of the study was to examine the influence of project management practices and the performance of agricultural projects in Nandi County. Specifically, the study sought to examine the influence of project planning; to determine the influence of monitoring and evaluation on the performance of agricultural projects in Nandi County. The study was guided by the theory of constraints and the theory of scheduling. This study adopted a correlational design. The study targeted 60 agriculture projects implemented in Nandi County between the year 2017 and 2021.  The study also observed a sample of 160 respondents using a census from the various agriculture projects implemented in Nandi County. The study used a questionnaire to collect primary data. The questionnaire was pilot-tested with 16 respondents representing 10% of the study sample to check for validity and reliability. The questionnaire was tested for content, face, and construct validity. The study analyzed the data descriptively and also inferentially. The study found that the joint variables of project management practices had a strong correlation (r =.853) and explained 72.7% variation in the performance of agricultural projects. The study found all the independent variables to significantly influence the performance of agricultural projects in Nandi County.  The study concluded that project planning practices significantly influence project performance; and project monitoring significantly influence project performance. The study recommends for effective implementation of project management practices to ensure the successful delivery of projects.  The study also recommends further studies to account for the 27.3% variable in project performance from the other project management practices not in the study. The findings were presented in tables and discussed. The findings will be useful to project practitioners, stakeholders, county governments, and government agencies as well as scholars.

Key Words: Project Management Practices, Performance of Agricultural Projects, Project Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation