Assessment of performance of smallholder dairy farms in Kenya: An econometric approach

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was to estimate the technical and cost efficiencies of smallholder dairy farms in Kenya (Embu and Meru counties). Methodology and results: Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey from 135 (96 in Embu and 39 Meru) randomly sampled farms using semi-structured questionnaires. Stochastic frontier production and cost functions were estimated using the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) technique. It revealed zero-grazed herds of four animals (mainly Friesians and Ayrshires) on two-acre sized farms that practice mixed crop-livestock farming system. The animals were underfed daily with roughages (52.2 Kg), concentrates (2.2 Kg) and mineral supplements (37 g); producing 15 Kg of milk on average. The major factors influencing milk output were the number of lactating cows and the amounts of roughages, concentrates and mineral supplements, while the prices of roughages and labour caused most variation in its production cost. The mean farmers' technical and cost efficiencies were 83.7 and 95.6%, respectively. The production model coefficient was 2.11. These results implied that milk production could be increased by 16.3% through better use of available resources given the current state of technology without extra cost, while the cost of milk production could be decreased by about 4.4% without decreasing output. Conclusion and application of results: The results indicate that optimization of farm efficiencies could increase milk yields while concurrently lowering its production cost. The study further provides evidence that any efforts towards reducing land sub-division and promotion of enterprise specialization could increase milk affordability.

Prevalence of Repeat Breeding Syndrome in Dairy Cattle in Selected Regions of Kenya

“…In the current study, the smallholder dairy farmers had a preference for Friesians, Ayrshires and their crosses over other breeds of cattle. The findings of this study are similar to the findings of Mugambi et al (2015).…”

Econometric analysis of technical efficiency of pearl millet farmers in Kano State, Nigeria

“…This implies that increasing labour by 1% will increase output by about 0.526 % ceteris paribus. The findings correspond to those obtained by [10] and [16] but are not in accordance with findings of [17] and [18] The estimate for seed (0.243) is positive and significant at 5%. The significance of seed quantity is due to the fact that seed determines to a large extent the output obtained.…”

Assessment of farmers’ compliance in implementing recommended cow comfort changes and their effects on lying time, stall and cow cleanliness within smallholder dairy farms in Kenya

“…Out of the 12 comfort parameters assessed, recommended changes to improve floor softness and flatness, leg space, lunge space and neck rail availability and positioning were implemented most frequently. Considering that most dairy farmers in Kenya also produce crops (Mugambi et al, 2015), dirt and crop-waste are readily available and accessible, thus they can be added to the dirt floors to flatten and soften the surfaces regularly. Implementation of recommended roof and stall length changes could have been limited by the land area available to extend stalls to due to the small sizes of the farms (0.47 hectares) available to smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya (Global Forum On Agricultural Research, 2016), while replacing roofs or covering the holes to prevent water getting into the stall may have been expensive for the farmers thus reducing their compliance.…”