| dc.description.abstract | Although the livestock sector is the main source of livelihood and especially in the arid and semi arid districts (ASALs) and employ about 50% of the labour force, exploitation of the livestock subsector has been faced with many challenges and constraints. These include socio economic factors, technological factors, inadequate capacity for service delivery, weak delivery of extension services, and demographic factors among others.
The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors influencing milk production in Kitui West District. The research was conducted by collecting primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected from small scale livestock farmers in the district with the help of provincial administration staff and divisional livestock officers conversant with the area. Pre testing of the questionnaire was done in one of the locations not sampled in the district before actual administering in the field.
The data was then collected using personal interview. A semi structured questionnaire was used to collect the data during the interview The sampling procedure was multi stage sampling method. The analysis was mainly descriptive in form of frequencies and percentages. The major analysis method was multiple regression using SPSS. The study found that milk production in Kitui west district was being influenced though differently by technological factors, social economic factors and demographic factors. Gender, age and educational level of the household head significantly influenced milk production in the district.
Land tenure and farm size significantly influenced milk production in the district while average monthly income of the house hold head, source of capital and source of farm labour had no influence on milk production in the district. Trainings on cattle husbandly practices, challenges; namely finances and drought did not influence milk production. However, types of breeds kept by the household heads and fodder conservation significantly influenced milk production in the district. The study then gave recommendations to the policy makers, private practitioners in the milk sector, programmes and projects and finally to researchers. | en_US |
