Agricultural input organizations at best group farmers on the basis of geography and yet customers,
the farmers, are the final arbiters on the financial performance of the organization. This
research investigated multiple characteristics of farmers for farmer factors that may be used for
targeting in the certified maize seed market of Western and Coastal Kenya. The latent class
finite mixture method of cluster analysis was used to model a survey sample data of 313 observations
and, therefore, to first define the farmer groups or segments in the study market and
then investigate for those farmer factors that would be influential in targeting social or extension
initiatives and marketing strategies to the farmers. The study found that the study market is
dominated by smallholder farmers at 98%, and that the farmers may be grouped into two distinct
farmer groups, the empowered smallholder farmer and the challenged smallholder farmer,
with a proportion of 85% and 15% respectively. The empowered farmer has the desired positive
agronomic practices but is socioeconomically challenged, while the challenged farmer has
poor or negative agronomic practices and is socioeconomically adverse. Socioeconomic status
and gender continued to be significant factors in the smallholder dominated market but negative
or resistant agronomic practices were found to have the strongest associations. Consequently,
farmers may be addressed as belonging to one of either profiles, and the empowered farmer profile
may be the focus for marketing strategies design while the challenged farmer profile may be
the focus for social initiatives design. Additionally, seed recycling resistant behavior should be
a key factor and in the context of other factors as well.