Factors influencing participation in dairy goat milk marketing in Kenya and its implication for a sustainable breeding program

Abstract

Dairy goat production is multi-faceted and various organizations in Kenya have promoted it with the main objective being to make families food secure. However, marketing plays an important function in ensuring better income that would improve the welfare levels of dairy goat farmers. Dairy goat milk marketing in Kenya can be described as a relatively traditional or informal affair. Organized production and processing is limited in both absolute and utilized capacity, if not non-existent, despite attempts to promote dairy goat production in the country. Lack of market infrastructure and institutions in rural areas suggest markets are thin and imperfect, leaving farmers to make their own efforts to market their milk. This has effects on sustainability of a dairy goat breeding programme. The current study examined factors that contributed to market participation of dairy goat farmers in Kenya and the implication for a sustainable breeding programme. With the use of Heckman estimation procedure, the study identified policy and technology options to increase participation and sale of milk by dairy goat farmers. Data used was collected from 71 household in a cross-sectional survey conducted in the Rift Valley, Nyanza and Coast regions of the country. Results indicate that physical capital (i.e., size of land and livestock owned), milk price, distance to the market and age of the household head influenced market participation and dairy goat milk sales. Dairy goat farmers in their management need to balance flock numbers with feed availability and genetic improvement. Consequently, strategies targeting optimizing available resources by matching livestock production systems to available resources, improving existing technologies and integrating technologies that use multipurpose animals and crops, and recycling of crop residues and by-products as feed for dairy goats are options for ensuring adequate nutrition for dairy goat productivity, increasing flock size and exploiting market opportunities. A balanced breeding programme combining milk yield, fertility and longevity traits in the breeding goal should be adopted. The foregoing, if addressed adequately, would lead to a sustainable dairy goat breeding programme.