Staff Profiles

Karatina University

Dr.Rebecca Karaya Kigwa

Lecturer

School: School of Agriculture and Biotechnology;

Department of Agricultural Sciences

 

Email Address: rkaraya@karu.ac.ke 

rebeccakaraya@gmail.com

 

 

 

Area/ Field of specialization: School Agriculture Education, Agricultural Extension and Rural Innovations

Research interests: Agroecology, Sustainable Land Management, Farmer Participatory Learning, Rural Livelihood Improvement and Agricultural Technology Transfer

Research Links: orcid: 0000-0002-2907-0753

scholarLink:https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=o1xfkkoAAAAJ&hl=en

Biography

Rebecca Karaya-Kigwa (PhD) is a Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Sciences at Karatina University, where she has been since 2015. Before joining Karatina University, Rebecca served with Kenya Teachers Service Commission (TSC) as a Biology/Agriculture teacher for thirteen years.  She received a Diploma in Science Education from Kagumo Teacher Training College, BSc in Agriculture Education and Extension, MSc in Agricultural Extension and Ph.D. in Agricultural and Rural Innovations from Egerton University.

She has done research projects on women groups and food security, reduction of post-harvest losses in maize in Arid and Semi-Arid areas in Kenya and in rehabilitation of degraded lands in Kenyan drylands among others. She has also been involved in various outreach activities with farmers while in Karatina University. Her research interests are in participatory learning and research methods, agricultural technology transfer, sustainable land management practices and agroecology. She is passionate about rural livelihoods improvement and enjoy working with farmers as well as teaching at the University.

 

Publications

Kamotho, G. N., Asiko, L, A., Kibanyu, J,.K., Kinyua, P, R., Karaya, R. N., Muthee, P, N., Mwathi, Z. N (2023). Assessment of Production Constraints and Contribution of Avocado to Food Security and Income in the Mount Kenya Region, Kenya. International Journal of Agriculture, Environment and Bioresearch, Vol. 08, No. 05; 2023. https://doi.org/10.35410/IJAEB.2023.5859

Karaya, R. N., Onyango, C. A., & Ogendi, G. M. (2020). The Effect of Participation in Farmer Groups on Household Adoption of Sustainable Land Management Practices in Kenyan Drylands. Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology, 38(11), 66-80. https://doi.org/10.9734/ajaees/2020/v38i1130454

Karaya, R. N., Onyango, C. A., & Ogendi, G. M. (2021). A community-GIS supported dryland use and cover change assessment: The case of the Njemps flats in Kenya, Cogent Food & Agriculture, 7(1), 1-19. Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311932.2021.1872852

Burian, A., Karaya, R., Wernersson, J E., Egberth, M., Lokorwa, B., Nyberg, G. (2019) A community-based evaluation of population growth and agro-pastoralist resilience in Sub-Saharan drylands. Environmental Science & Policy Volume 92, February 2019, Pages 323-330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2018.10.021 Elsevier