Proceedings - Tropentag

Animal breeding and health — Posters
Letting Farmers Decide: Supporting Dairy Farming through
Delivery of Preferred Breeding Services
IMMACULATE OMONDI 1 ,ISABELLE BALTENWECK 2 ,KERSTIN ZANDER 3 ,
SIEGFRIED BAUER 1
1Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Dept. of Project and Regional Planning, Germany
2International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya
3Charles Darwin University, School for Environmental Research, Australia
Africa has a deficit in animal products and the situation is projected to worsen because
of the increasing gap between supply and demand. There is, therefore, a need
for change in the manner in which livestock are reared and for raising the productivity
of individual animals on the African continent. Kenya, in its “Vision 2030,” aims
at reducing poverty and hunger through boosting growth in agriculture and livestock
production by 6–8 % per year. Pragmatic efforts and approaches towards this goal, in
livestock production, include sustained genetic improvement and appropriate policies,
among others. Regarding genetic improvement artificial insemination (AI) is one of
the superior technologies for disseminating genes within a population at a reasonable
cost. However, after historical changes in dairy policy in Kenya, the use of the breeding
service has continued to decline with the cost of the service escalating. Current
policy and development efforts directed towards providing solution to the problems
facing dairy farmers would benefit from a critical assessment and understanding of
farmers’ preferences for attributes that could be influencing their choice of these services.
This is pertinent in identifying important incentives, barriers and opportunities
for policy and strategic interventions. Consequently, the study applied choice experiments,
a multi-attribute preference eliciting method, to evaluate farmer preferences
for AI service attributes in the milk marketing hubs in Kenya. Three hundred dairy
farmers from three dairy hubs in western Kenya were interviewed. The data was analysed
using multinomial logit model as well as random parameter logit models. The
results reveal that dairy farmers derive the highest welfare gain from AI services offered
by dairy hubs, and the highest welfare loss from local semen. The results bring
to light the need for proper coordination and organisation of AI service, and the delivery
of quality service. These findings are expected to inform the design of dairy
service delivery activities that could not only reduce the barriers to farmer access to
AI services but also improve the dairy farmers’ incomes from dairy enterprises while
increasing milk production to meet the increasing consumer demand.
Keywords: Artificial insemination, choice experiment, dairy services, farmer preferences
Contact Address: Immaculate Omondi, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Dept. of Project and Regional
Planning, Senckenbergstr.3, 35390 Giessen, Germany, e-mail: Immaculate.Omondi@agrar.
uni-giessen.de
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