In many parts of Africa, smallholder farmers are being compelled by policy and markets to diversify their traditional export crops, whose potential for growth remains uncertain. Alternative agricultural activities are needed which offer higher returns to land and labour, offer the expectation of future growth, and which are suitable for adoption by the resource-poor smallholder farmers who continue to dominate African production. Market-oriented dairy production may fill this need for some smallholder producers.
The reasons for promoting dairy research have fundamentally to do with improving the opportunities and welfare of smallholder farmers and the consequent effects on agricultural development. The avenues of this impact are several:
Other impacts may be either positive or negative, including the impact on women in the household in terms of income generation and access, and labour demands and allocation. Similarly, the impacts of intensive dairy development on the poorest households may be indeterminate. Finally, dairying can have positive impacts on soil fertility maintenance in intensive mixed cropping systems, a role that may grow with intensification.
Various previous studies have examined the adoption of dairy technologies and their impacts on smallholders in Kenya (some of these are summarised in Appendix 1). The objectives and focal points of these studies are diverse. Previous adoption-oriented research has examined the use and diffusion of dairy-related technologies (Metz 1993; Metz et al 1995) and the factors affecting adoption of Napier grass on smallholder farms (Irungu et al 1998). Impact-oriented studies have examined changes in the roles of women in livestock production and marketing (Price Waterhouse 1990; Mugo 1994; Mullins et al 1996), and how dairying affects the nutritional status of households (Launonon et al 1985; Leegwater et al 1991; Huss-Ashmore 1992). Many of these studies were motivated, at least in part, by the efforts of the National Dairy Development Project (NDDP), which was active in 24 districts in Kenya at the time of its completion in 1995.
Previous technology adoption and diffusion studies emphasise the high variation in adoption rates and factors apparently influencing the adoption of dairy-related technologies and practices. The impacts of dairy adoption, like the prevalence of adoption itself, vary by location in Kenya. These studies provide useful if inconclusive evidence that households benefit in certain ways from the adoption of smallholder dairy production and marketing. A number of important issues remain unresolved, however. These include:
This study attempts to address these issues through the application of quantitative methods that use samples of households with and without dairy production and allow for controlling of multiple confounding factors (von Braun et al 1989; Randolph 1992). The study constituted one of the case studies carried out under the auspices of the Impact Assessment and Evaluation Group (IAEG) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), as part of the project 'Assessment of the adoption of CGIAR agricultural innovations'. This study set out to identify the factors that lead farmers to adopt or not adopt agricultural innovations, through a synthesis of nine case studies. The IAEG project was designed to help produce persuasive and conclusive information to CGIAR donors, and formulate recommendations for improving the rate and extent of adoption of innovations.
The objectives of this study were therefore:
Research results from studying the adoption and impact of dairy technologies in coastal Kenya can be expected to inform ongoing KARI and ILRI research on smallholder dairying in other parts of Kenya. The results will also benefit other ILRI dairy-related research being carried out with national partners in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa and elsewhere in the tropics. More generally, the results and conclusions will be relevant for informing policy makers and development agencies interested in supporting smallholder dairy production in difficult and risky production environments.
