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Lessons learned for scaling up. The promotion of market-orientated smallholder dairy
production, which significantly raises household income, can have a profound effect on poverty
reduction. In Kenya, development has been built on efficient market systems, AI and disease
control, infrastructure provision, research and extension in support of smallholder production.
Government support has been crucial for this. At the same time subsidised support systems
proved to be unsustainable requiring a balance between public and private action. Government
provision of public goods needs to compliment incentives for private marketing, processing
and input supplies.
The development of a successful smallholder industry requires two complimentary elements.
Firstly, increased productivity requires improved livestock breeds, strong disease control and
veterinary services and improved quality and quantity of feeds. Given the need to encourage
many smallholder dairy producers, delivery of support services remains dependent on local
institutions and their development.
Secondly, expanding market institutions with facilities for milk bulking and collection, and group
organisational structures are essential and can be most effectively supplied by the private
sector. Although formal licensed markets based on processed milk products are important,
informal markets selling raw milk, informal dairy products with low-cost processing remain an
essential component of a successful dairy industry.
Kenya’s sweet potatoes
This case study concerns the research and
development of an orange-fleshed sweet potato, high
in β-carotene, invaluable for improving household
nutrition and food security especially in times
of hunger or drought, and for pre-natal care and
households affected by Human Immunodeficiency
Virus/ Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/
AIDS).
New varieties were developed as a result of a
ten-year research programme. Government extension services and a number of
NGOs have subsequently participated in programmes providing training, propagation
and distribution of vines, processing and the linking of producers to markets. These
programmes covered many parts of Kenya but in particular Coast, Eastern, Rift Valley,
Nyanza and Western Provinces.
Over 2,660 households, including many vulnerable ones, have benefited, with
sweet potatoes being grown for eating as fresh vegetables and processed product.
Traditionally regarded as a women’s crop sweet potatoes have made an important
contribution to improving the livelihoods of women, both as a food and a cash crop.
Full commercialisation is now taking place through promotion in urban areas with a
28 Agricultural Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa