aistand south~ern afrkca - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

Table 2. On-farnn flock composiion of the cdual-purpose goats in western Kenya (Apri 1992).
No. of DPG
owning
Village farmers Age
Mature Mature
Doelings does Bucklinga bucks Total
1-6 7-12 1-2 1-6 1-6 7-12 1-2 1-6
Mon Mon Yr. Yr. Mon Mon Yr Yr.
HamWsi 21 7 4 13 32 7 1 2 5 71
Masumbl 14 3 2 4 12 0 2 4 7 34
Kalmoal 18 10 5 1 31 9 1 0 9 67
Muhanda 32 15 0 0 54 23 0 0 6 98
Rabuor 27 11 0 0 47 18 3 0 9 88
Lela 10 1 0 0 15 3 1 0 3 23
Total 122 48 11 18 191 60 8 6 39 381
Table 3. Comparison of on-station and on-farn performance of dual-purpose goats in western Kenya.
Percent %)
Variable On-station On-farm difference
Number of does 200 150
Doe survival (%) 95 80 18.8
Kidding (%) 98 65 50.8
Kid survival (%) 90 85 5.9
Kid welqht at one year (kg) 20 18 11.1
Milk offtake (kg) 120 60 50.0
Avorage doe weight (kg) 27 11 145.5
Productivity/doo/year (kg) 27 11 145.5
Productivity/metabolic body 1.8 0.8 125.0
weight-year (kg)
Mean (n=8) 51.90/0
summarises the various scenarios where credit potential, farmers needed farm sizes of
was available to DPG respondent farmers in approximately 3.5 ha to grow both subsistence
Hamisi village in western Kenya. These results food crops and to plant improved forages for the
indicate that: DPGs.
" for smallholder farmers with 1.09 ha, credit
is not the limiting factor but land is Availability of inputs for successful
" for medium-sized holder8, land is not the adoption
major constnmint, but credit is Although inputs for adoption of improved DPG
" for the la ge-scale farmers, by Hamisi technologies, e.g. veterinarydrugs, saltlicksand
standards, availability of credit significantly
improves the farm output.
concentrate feeds were generally available,
prices proved prohibitive for most DPG farmers.
Small land holdings limited the farmers' choice
The lesson learned here is that it is not always to cultivate improved forages as most available
lack of credit that hampers increased land was used for subsistence food crops. The
agricultural productivity in smallholder farms, prerequisite for the successful adoption of
but rather a combination of factors including improve I DPG technologies was access to approlack
of land and credit facilities which, jointly ximately 3.5 ha of land (Nyaribo, 1992). Howmilitate
ageinst smallholders. The conclusion ever, more intensive technologies can be
therefore reached fromn this investigation is that developed to make DPG farming viable under
to fully exploit improved DPG technology smaller farm sizes.
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