Adoption of Farm Biosecurity Measures and the Effects on Cost Efficiency of Poultry Farmers in Nyanza, Kenya

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) –resistance to antibiotics– is among the leading causes of death globally. The rise in AMR is largely attributed to the interaction with livestock and/or consumption of their products. The high incidences of AMR in livestock stem from farmers’ attempts to combat diseases, which are among the causes of low poultry productivity. Besides poor poultry health outcomes, this strategy has also accelerated the challenge of drug resistance. This study was motivated by the need to find sustainable ways of dealing with diseases and AMR in poultry production. Existing literature suggests that preventive livestock health management practices, otherwise known as biosecurity, can be effective in tackling AMR. However, evidence on the uptake of such practices is scanty among poultry farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya. Further, no study has shown the impact of adopting such practices on poultry farmers’ cost performance. This study bridges the gap by exploring the uptake of biosecurity and the corresponding effect on the cost efficiency of poultry farmers. The study follows a three-step estimation procedure; first, constructing latent classes that describe adoption patterns, then, evaluating the determinants of adoption through a multinomial logistic regression (MLogit), and finally, estimating a stochastic cost frontier to assess the cost performance of farmers. The findings of this study demonstrate that poultry farmers belong to three classes of biosecurity with ‘low’, ‘moderate’, and ‘high’ adoption behaviors. A correlation analysis between the classes and key animal health indicators suggests that farmers practicing more biosecurity measures have better poultry health outcomes. The outcome of the multinomial logistic regression shows that information access and the perceived benefits of biosecurity measures are the greatest drivers of adoption. For instance, farmers who accessed information on biosecurity measures were 25.3% more likely to belong to the ‘high adopters’ category and 20.8% less likely to be in the ‘moderate adopters’ class. As such, the study recommends enhanced information dissemination to improve the uptake of biosecurity measures. The output of stochastic cost frontier analysis shows that poultry farmers in Nyanza are largely cost-efficient. The study also notes a pattern indicating that increased use of biosecurity practices enhances farmers’ cost efficiency. In this regard, the study recommends enhanced efforts to promote the uptake of biosecurity measures for increased poultry productivity.