Smallholder farmers' feed material conseryation strategies in the tropical drylands of South-eastern Kenya
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Date
2012Author
Ndathi, Aphaxard J. N.
Nyangito, Moses, M.
Mitaru, Barnabas N
Musimba, Nahashon K.R.
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Availability of feed is the major constraint to livestock production in the drylands of
southeastern Kenya. ln an effort to address this problem, this study was carried out to
identify and rank feed material conservation strategies being used by the Kamba agropastoralists
inhabiting this region. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to
household heads of households selected using agro-ecological zones and systematic
sampling using the road transect method. Ranking was done using the pairwise method
white data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences.
Feed conservation strategies identified being used in the study area were leaving the
feed standing in the field, harvesting and placing the feed on tree branches or putting in
an open wooden rack, roofed wooden rack or a granary. The granary was ranked the
most effective structures followed by the tree branches, the roofed wooden racks and
tastly the open wooden racks. However, a granary could only store small amounts of
feed material hence the roofed wooden rack was more popular.