Adoption and profitability of smallholder dairy Goat production in Kenya: the case of Meru south and Meru central districts
Abstract
Goats play an important role in the life of smallholder farmers. Improving production of
goats by increasing the efficiency of goat milk production through crossbreeding local
goats with exotic breeds would result in higher incomes and increase the availability of
animal protein. Although, the dairy goat technology has been promoted in the central
Kenyan highlands by a number of development agencies for more than a decade, very
little documentation has been done on the uptake of the technology, factors influencing
adoption and its profitability. This study attempted to fill this information gap by
estimating the determinants of dairy goat adoption and determining the profitability of the
enterprise among adopting farmers, using Meru South and Meru Central districts in
Kenya as case studies.
A household survey was conducted among 260 randomly sampled smallholder farmers
and an econometric probit model used to identify and explain the influence of various
factors on the probability of adoption. Gross margin analysis was used to estimate the
profitability of the enterprise. Results showed that 46% of the sampled farmers had
adopted, 47% had not adopted while 7% had adopted and abandoned the dairy goat
technology. Majority of the adopters (83%) kept cross-bred dairy goats while 17% kept
pure breeds. Results further revealed that the dairy goat technology is likely to be adopted
by households characterized by high dependency ratio. Farmers with experience in
rearing local goats and growing indigenous fodder are also likely to adopt the technology,
implying that its technological attributes are compatible with local livelihoods. Analyses
also reveal that dairy goat production is a profitable enterprise and has potential to
contribute to farm incomes. The study derives important policy implications for enhanced
dairy goat technology uptake and production in the Kenyan highlands.
Citation
Master of I Science Degree in Agricultural and Applied Economics,Publisher
University of Nairobi Department of Agricultural Economics