Impact of Milk Cooling Plant Adoption on Small Holder Farmer Incomes in Nandi County, Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya, it is widely cited that about 70-80% of milk production comes from smallholders, with the remainder from larger producers, estimated at about 5,000 (FAO, 2007). The estimates of the number of smallholders vary. The number of 600,000 (Omore et al., 1999) has been widely cited for many years. According to SDP, the Kenyan population has grown significantly over this period and the number is no longer valid. According to their revised estimate the number of smallholder dairy farms is much greater at about 1.8 million (ILRI, 2007). One point eight million farms represent about 35% of rural households and 26% of total households in Kenya . Most of them combine diary production with maize, or other cash crops. ILRI estimates that about 40% of their income comes from dairy. In addition to being an important source of recurrent revenue cattle is also an important asset investment providing non-recurrent income (from selling cattle or meat) (GOK, 2007). Income from dairy is also the only year-long recurrent revenue from agriculture, though revenue flows do fluctuate with seasons