| dc.description.abstract | Majority of the Kenyan population resides in rural areas and are characterised by high
levels of poverty due to low income and food insecurity. Poultry production and in
particular indigenous chicken has been recognised as an avenue to improve livelihoods
among rural households through provision of income. Besides, the enterprise
contributes to socioeconomic and nutritional requirements of rural and peri-urban
populations. Despite this potential, chicken production continues to encounter low and
declining production, inadequate uptake of modern innovations and inefficient market
structures that are unreliable in forecasting impending trade relations. This has been
ascribed to limitation of measures to improve productivity through poultry friendly
technologies and provision of necessary market information. Therefore, this study
sought to examine adoption, production and market participation among smallholder
indigenous poultry farmers in Meru County. The study applied a cross sectional survey
design and Tigania West Sub County was selected since it is a leading producer of
indigenous chicken in Kenya. Data were collected by administering structured
questionnaires to 359 smallholder farmers, who were identified through multistage
stratified and probability proportionate to size sampling techniques. Descriptive
statistics used to analyse socioeconomic and institutional characteristics showed that
majority of the respondents were aged, with moderate experience and had limited
extension access. In addition, the results revealed that respondents had adequate access
to market information and financial credits. The binary logit model was used to identify
farm and farmer characteristics that affect adoption of technologies. Improved breeds,
proper housing structures, improved feeds and disease control measures were used as
technology adoption parameters. Results show that experience, household size,
extension access, land tenure and income from indigenous poultry were significant and
positively influenced technology adoption. Further, age of the respondents, farm size
and level of education had negative and significant impact on adoption. The Cobb
Douglas production function was used to determine farm and farmer characteristics that
affect poultry production. Results revealed that indigenous chicken production was
highly responsive to off-farm income, technology adoption and gender of the
respondents. The input output relationship presented that amount of credit used,
quantity of feeds and frequency of vaccination were significant and positively
influenced poultry yield at constant returns to scale. The Heckman’s two-stage results
show that the decision of smallholders to engage in poultry markets was highly
influenced by the frequency of extension and household size, while education and
expert contact significantly influenced the intensity of market participation. The study
recommends that emphasis should be concentrated on policies that promote youth
participation in indigenous poultry production and provision of extension and training
among smallholders. Besides, there is a need to emphasize on improved land tenure and
increased engagement of farmers in off-farm employment in order to increase the scope
of their working capital. | en_US |
