Determinants of low milk productivity among smallholder cattle farmers

ABSTRACT

In the effort to establish the determinants of low  milk  productivity   among the smallholder cattle farmers of Ugenya Sub-County. The livestock production is a key agricultural sub-sector commonly practiced in many parts of Kenya. The milk production  has  an important implication to the overall welfare of individuals and the society as a whole. The livestock products such as hides and skins are used in the industrial production of leather wears. These industries offer employment to the society. The animal products such as meat and milk provide nutrients of protein type when consumed as meals and this leads to the improved people’s nutrition. Over the years, livestock production has been facing challenges that have contributed to low farmers’ profitability which may be due to low productivity.  Our research objectives will be to establish the characteristics of cattle farmers, effect of the farmer’s income and education on productivity, determine farmer’s characteristics, establish relationship between the size of the herd and the productivity and determine any other constraints farmers’ face which contribute to low productivity. The research will follow descriptive method and regression analysis methods will be used.. To determine the influence of farmers’ level of income, education, farmers’ size of the herd, land size and cost of production on the farmers’ productivity, regression method will be used. Target population will be households in Ugenya Sub-County where stratified sampling technique will be used. The sample size will include 46 respondents. A questionnaire will be used to collect data from households’ heads. To establish the farmers characteristics, descriptive analysis will be applied. Data will be analyzed using (SPSS) Statistical Package for Social Sciences.