Major Factors That Affect Livestock Marketing in Kenya: a Case Study of Maikona and North-Horr Divisions, Marsabit District.

Abstract

The primary objectives of the study were to identify major factors that affect livestock marketing as perceived by the livestock traders. It also sought to rank the factors in order of importance. In order to achieve these objectives, all those individuals engaged in livestock trade in the study area (Maikona and North- Horr administrative divisions) were considered as the population of interest. A convenience sampling technique was utilized to select a sample of sixty livestock traders for the interview. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was in two parts. Part A was concerned with the current nature of livestock marketing. Part B was designed with the intention of identifying the most critical factors in livestock marketing. The data collected was analysed by means of summary statistics like percentages and proportions for part A. Part B was analysed through use of factor analysis, with the help of statgraphic computer package. The results of the study showed that a number of factors affect livestock marketing. The final varimax rotated factors matrix revealed eight categories of factors as significant. However, on the basis of the aggregate average for each category, only four of the eight categories were found to be important. Among the factors that featured as critical in the livestock marketing are; high transportation costs{ mean score=4.57) , lack of reliable market information (mean score=4. 26), lack of trucks to carry livestock to various markets (mean score=4.26), inadequate capital to do the business comfortably (mean score=4.19), lack of credit facilities to support traders (mean score=4 .19) ,lack of formal business training (mean score=4.15), and poor quality roads (mean score=4.15) On the basis of these findings, the areas of concentration for the government, and other organizations, like NGOs should be, to improve the infrastructure in the district, extension of loan facilities to livestock traders, and to strengthen education system, including the adult literacy section. The study was limited by time and financial resources. Also there was difficulty in translating some words in the questionnaire into the local vernacular of the respondents. Areas for further research on the same (livestock marketing), can be to extend similar study to other parts of the district. Since this study focused mainly on livestock marketing, similar study with emphasis on marketing of livestock products like meat, milk, hide and skin can also be done in Maikona and North-Horr divisions or elsewhere. The government and Non-governmental Organizations' officers may hold different opinions and attitudes and the same study can be extended to this group of people. Since the reliability coefficient resulting from the scale score was 0.6042 (60.42%), the scale used for the study is quite reliable. Thus the findings of the study is reliable to the extent that policy makers in the livestock sector can rely upon.