  The associated photoproduction of $K\Lambda$ from the proton in the low
energy region is studied using an isobar model in which the non-resonant
contributions are obtained from the non-linear sigma model with chiral SU(3)
symmetry which predicts, in a natural way, the contact term with its coupling
strength along with the coupling strengths of the various Born terms predicted
by the non-linear sigma model. The present model is an extension of the
non-linear sigma model with chiral SU(2) symmetry, used earlier to study the
photo, electro, and neutrino productions of pions. In the resonance sector, the
contributions from the well established nucleon resonances ($R$) in the $s$
channel, the hyperon resonances ($Y^{*}$) in the $u$ channel, and the kaon
resonances ($K^{*}$ and $K_{1}$) in the $t$ channel having spin $\le
\frac{3}{2}$ and mass $<2$ GeV with a significant branching ratio in $K\Lambda$
decay mode, have been considered. The strong and electromagnetic couplings of
the $s$ channel nucleon resonances are taken from experiments while the
couplings for the resonances in the $t$ and $u$ channels are fitted to
reproduce the current data on the associated photoproduction of $K\Lambda$ in
this energy region. The numerical results are presented for the total and
differential cross sections and are compared with the available experimental
data from CLAS and SAPHIR as well as with some of the recent theoretical
models.
