ABSTRACT
Artisanal Gold Mining has gained popularity as a source of livelihood for more than 13 million people in the developing world. However, it is characterized with massive land destructions posing a threat to food security. Despite this, many scholarly works on AGM have focused on its influence on livelihoods on a general perspective. There is need to narrow the scope of generalization and zero in on specific AGM parameters such as; acreage of land under AGM and asses its influence on maize crop yields. Ikolomani Sub County is endowed with high amounts of rainfall and fertile soils. Despite this, it has a food poverty index of 47% in comparison to the national food poverty rate of 45%. Notwithstanding the fact that, it has 500 households engaging in AGM on their farming land. Therefore this study focused on the influence of acreage of land under AGM on maize crop yields. A cross-sectional descriptive research design involving purposive, systematic, and random sampling was employed. A minimum sample size of 384 households was drawn from a study population of 500 households of farmers who engage in AGM. The results show that about 53.8 % (r =0.538, p < 0.05) of the variation of maize crop yields can be explained by acreage of land under AGM. That arable land in Ikolomani is greatly degraded, compacted and occupied by AGM activities subsequently resulting to low maize crop yields. It can be recommended that enhanced control and management of AGM activities in Ikolomani Sub County could help mitigate against chances of decrease in the acreage of arable land and subsequent low maize crop yields.

ABSTRACT
Increased production has been hindered by inadequate agricultural information on pest and disease management in crops. The study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the selected advisory channels on disseminating agricultural information on safe use of pesticides among the smallholder kale farmers. Action research design employed multistage random and purposive sampling methods to obtain responses using structured questionnaires from a sample of 160 respondents from each of the four sampling areas (wards) in two Sub-counties located in Kisii County, Kenya. Data was analyzed with the Analysis of Variance using the statistical package for data analysis (SPSS Version 19). The results obtained indicated that highest number (38.1%) of the respondents required the information on safe use of pesticides while the lowest number (13.1%) required information on financial management. Majority of the respondents (60%) believed that the information obtained on safe use of pesticides led to increase in yields and only 6.9% believed that it only contributed to safe and proper use of pesticides. There was no significant difference (F = 2.139, p = 0 .112) in farmers’ perception on the effectiveness among the selected advisory channels. The study recommends that the government needs to extend training to the pesticide dealers, farmers and other stakeholders on safe use practices of pesticides to facilitate pest and disease management in kale production.