Analysis of socio-economic factors influencing the adoption of breeding technologies among dairy farmers in the North Rift Region of Kenya

Abstract

In many third world countries today, Kenya included, adoption of agricultural technologies plays a big role in agricultural production especially due to the need to increase production for food security and income. North Rift is one of the regions in Kenya where the dairy sub-sector is the second largest income contributor. This sector employs 50% of agricultural labour force and provides substantial amount of raw materials for local meat and milk processing industries. Though the region is one of the high potential agricultural areas in Kenya, the total annual milk output lately does not match the region’s potential. North Rift region is endowed with a lot of livestock and thus is expected that dairy output in the region should be high yet this is not so. Despite the government’s plans to develop the livestock sector through the introduction of various technologies such as breeding the local farmers hardly implement this technology. This has resulted in low milk production in the region. This study therefore, sought to determine and analyze the socio-economic factors that affect the adoption of breeding technologies among the dairy farmers in the region. The study was undertaken in Nandi, Uasin-Gishu and Trans-Nzoia counties of the North Rift region. A survey research design was used. The target population was all dairy farmers in the three counties of the region. Purposive, multistage, simple random and systematic sampling techniques were used to get 360 respondents for the study. Data was collected by use of structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Dairy farming households were used as units for analysis. Descriptive analysis and the Logit model were used to analyze data in order to answer the study objectives. The results showed that the age, gender and education level of the farmer, size of dairy land, cost of AI and frequency of visits by the extension personnel significantly influenced the adoption of breeding technologies by the farmers. There is need for the government to revive and expand adult literacy classes to enhance level of education of farmers and hence adoption of technology. The results also showed that the cost of the selected technology was the biggest predictor of changes in odds ratios and also had high marginal effects. The government should therefore introduce cost sharing programmes on AI services; employ more extension personnel and improve their mobility through provision of means of transport so as to enhance access to information by farmers. It is also recommended that land fragmentation be discouraged. Policies geared at improving education system, empowering women, strengthening extension services, appropriate land policy reforms and providing financial support to farmers will help a lot in promoting adoption of breeding dairy technologies in the North Rift region .