Dairy goat production practices in Kenya: Implications for a breeding programme

Abstract

Smallholder dairy goat farming in Kenya is increasingly being promoted by development organizations and policy makers as an option to boost incomes of farmers and to improve rural livelihoods. Heifer Project International-Kenya (HPIK), a non-governmental organization, initiated a dairy goat multiplication programme in 1994 in three different agro-ecological zones in Kenya. However, production practices influencing the sustainability of the multiplication and future breeding programmes have hardly been studied. The present study aimed to document dairy goat management practices in order to better understand the potentials and constraints of the dairy goat multiplication and future breeding programmes. A total of 108 beneficiaries of the HPIK dairy goat project were interviewed in the Coast, Nyanza and the Rift Valley provinces using a set of pre-tested structured and semi-structured questionnaires. Information on socio-economic characteristics and management practices of the farmers were collected. Results are presented in the form of descriptive statistics, and chi-square and t- tests done where appropriate to establish the statistical significance or otherwise of observations. Income generation and milk were ranked top as reasons for keeping dairy goats. Good management practices were evident, but high variation was found in feeding, health management and general husbandry practices, and this affected the overall performance of the multiplication programme. Average milk production at 1.9 litres per day was lower than or closer to that of crossbred goats. Twinning rate was favourable (51%) but mortality was relatively high (26%). Constraints were related to insufficient resources (e.g., land, feed and finances) and the external market rather than lack of technical information. For sustainability of dairy goat multiplication and breeding programmes targeting poverty alleviation, the initiative should be commensurate with the farmer’s capacity to ensure success, i.e., appropriate messages and technologies based on the understanding of the farmer’s production objectives, options and constraints.