Evaluation of Selected Factors Influencing Dairy Goat Productivity Among Small Holders in Manyatta Constituency, Embu County

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine the factors affecting dairy goats’ productivity among small scale farmers in Manyatta Constituency. The researcher used a sample of 50 farmers owning at least two dairy goats to represent the whole population of farmers rearing dairy goats. The researcher was restricted to farmers rearing dairy goats only. The research was aided by questionnaire which was structured with questions based on the objectives of the study and then sent to dairy farmers in Manyatta Constituency to answer the questions for the selected factors which influence dairy goats’ productivity among small scale farmers. The data was collected analyzed using descriptive statistics. The objectives of the study was to know the influence of farmers experience on dairy goat keeping, education level, breed type and finally the type of feeds on productivity of dairy goat among small scale farmers in Manyatta Constituency. The study was conducted in Manyatta Constituency because there are many farmers engaged in dairy goat rearing and the climate is conducive for dairy goat keeping linear regression analysis was to test relationship among variables (independent), statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to code, enter and compute the measurements of linear regression for the study so as to test the relationship between productivity and three variables (independent). The data findings analyzed showed that taking all other variables to zero, the type of feeds influenced productivity by 48% , the level of education influenced by 67.1% and the type breed was seen to have no influence on productivity of dairy goats in Manyatta Constituency. Further research should be carried out to explore other factors influencing dairy goat productivity; the study will be useful to policy makers, farmers and other relevant stakeholders.