---

Tea is a significant cash crop in the agricultural sector, particularly among smallholder tea farmers, for generating income. Smallholder tea farmers’ engagement in capacity building for monitoring and evaluation is crucial in promoting continuous development, enabling various organizations and communities to adapt and thrive. This leads to fostering a sense of ownership and empowerment.
However, research indicates that smallholder tea farmers especially in developing countries are affected by inconsistency and inadequate involvement in capacity-building methods for monitoring and evaluation. As a result, the performance of smallholder tea farming projects has been adversely impacted.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the influence of capacity building for monitoring and evaluation on the performance of smallholder tea farming projects. Drawing inspiration from the theory of constraints, this study employed purposive and simple random sampling techniques to achieve a non-biased sample of 379 respondents and 12 tea factory board members. Data were collected using questionnaires and interview guides. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data. Quantitative and qualitative information were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.
The ANOVA results indicated that the F-statistic (1, 369) = 6.633 was significant at a p-value of 0.010 < 0.05, implying that the predictor coefficient is not equal to zero. Hence, the regression model provides a significantly better prediction of the performance of smallholders’ tea farming projects. The results revealed a significant relationship between capacity building for monitoring and evaluation and the performance of smallholder tea farming projects in Nyamira County.

---