Edible insects are increasingly being considered as sustainable alternatives to fish and soybean meals in animal feed because of their high nutritional quality and environmental benefits. However, successful introduction of a new product to the market depends on the target user's acceptance. Thus, evaluating the potential demand of insect-based feeds would provide relevant information for policy development. The present study assessed farmers' knowledge on edible insects as feed, their acceptance of integrating insect meals in animal feeds and willingness to pay (WTP) for insect-based feed (IBF) using a contingent valuation method. A household survey was conducted among 957 randomly selected farmers including: 409 poultry, 241 fish and 307 pig farmers in four counties in Kenya. Results of the study reveal that over 70 and 80% of poultry and fish farmers, respectively, are aware that insects can be used as a feed ingredient. In addition, over 60 and 75% of poultry and fish farmers, respectively, consider insects as a good component of feed. Poultry, pig and fish farmers interviewed accepted and showed willingness to pay for IBF. Regression analysis indicated that age, gender, education, marital status, distance to feed trader, awareness of insects as feed, attitude towards insects, acceptance of insect species, availability of agricultural inputs, use of commercial feeds, availability of training and market information had a significant influence on the WTP for IBF. Therefore, increased extension services to educate famers on the nutritional benefits of insect meals in animal feeds and existing market opportunities are expected to improve farmers' attitude towards utilization and consequently enhance WTP for IBF, which in return would significantly reduce the existing pressure on conventional fishmeal feed resources. Our findings provide the first insights into the market opportunities of including insect meals in the animal feed value chain in Kenya.

Despite the huge employment and income benefits from vegetable farming, smallholder growers in developing countries lack the knowledge about high value markets and their requirements. Most of these growers are ignorant have limited knowledge about vegetable contract farming, product standardization and grading of their produce, quality of produce preferred by customers, on delivery times and food safety standards. This study used primary data collected from 200 smallholder vegetable growers in Arumeru District in Arusha Region to identify the determinants of high-value market participation of smallholder vegetable growers in high-value markets. The findings indicated that farmers income, distance from the farm to the main road and yield had a significant influence on smallholder cabbage growers' participation in high-value markets to local markets. While for onion farmers, income, irrigation, extension services, and market information had a positive influence on farmers' market participation. But as for tomato growers, experience, the distance to high-value market, yield, and irrigation had significant influence on growers' participation. These findings demonstrated the urgent need to deliberately improve the factors that increase participation of smallholder growers in high-value markets if they are to get stable incomes and sustain their livelihoods. There is also a need to improve access to market information, develop farmers' business skills and improve rural access roads.

Traditional African Vegetables (TAVs) form a significant component of many families' diets in Tanzania. Traditional African Vegetables contribute to reduction of malnutrition, stunting and poor health among consumers by providing vitamins and essential minerals in family diets. However, the consumption of vegetables is still below the per capita per day intake level recommended by World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization, causing millions of deaths annually due to nutrientdeficiency related diseases. This study examined the factors that influence the nutrition knowledge, frequency intake and farming households' attitudes towards consumption of traditional vegetables. The Standard Poison and the Generalized Poison models were used for analysis. Factor analysis was used to assess the attitudes towards TAVs consumption. Data were collected from randomly selected 63 households in Arumeru District of Tanzania in the months of July to November 2015. Generalized Poison model results showed that gender of the respondent, years of schooling, age of the respondent, household size and TAVs farm size influenced farmers' nutrition knowledge. Frequency intake of TAVs is influenced by the farmers' age, annual household income, household size, TAVs farm size and market price of TAVs. Factor analysis results indicated that medicinal properties of traditional vegetables positively influenced farmers' intake of vegetables. The "health factor" accounted for 31.4% of the total variance in the principal components analysis. 'Personal perception factor' accounted for 13.79% whereas 'personal taste factor' accounted for 12.71% of the total variance. It was concluded that rural farming households consume traditional vegetables majorly because of their health attributes. Thus, there is need to improve medicinal and nutritional knowledge of these crops among households. These findings imply that consumption of TAVs can be enhanced by educating households on nutrition importance and medicinal attributes of TAVs. Besides, farmers need training on simple but user-friendly technologies that could prolong storage and preserve freshness as well as nutritional contents of traditional vegetables.

The objective of this paper was to estimate the demand for poultry feed among smallholder farmers in Kenya disaggregated by gender. Most poultry enterprises are owned and managed by women even in male headed households. The study utilizes cross-section data collected in July 2015 from a sample 386 poultry farmers randomly selected from three counties including Nakuru, Kisii and Kirinyaga Counties. The feed demand for poultry enterprise was analyzed by estimating a translog cost function and a system of cost share functions for the major feed types used for poultry feeding in Kenya. These include grains, vegetables, and mixed feed. From the study the mean demand of feed per farmer were 55.47 kilograms for grains, 48.37 kilograms for vegetables and 71 kilograms for mixed feed. The variations between male and female farmers were significant at 10% for vegetables. Also the mean costs of feed per farmer were Kshs. 2108.00 for grains, Kshs.1248.00 for vegetables and Kshs 16,214.00 for mixed feed. In addition the results show that feeds are generally price inelastic and price elasticities tend to decrease with rising expenditure level. The study found out that most of the feeds have complementary relationships. For instance grain and mixed feed pair, and vegetable and mixed feed pair all exhibit a complementary relationship. It is therefore recommended that policy makers should develop policies that aim at reducing the prices of manufactured feed through the adoption of alternative ingredients such as insect as a source of protein in feed manufacture.