Violencias Basadas en Género (VBG)

Data on farm size, farm tools, number and type of dairy cattle, milk output, choice of market channels. Turnover, and cost of production, age and gender of the farmer was collected. Other data collected was on the level of education, experience in dairy farming, willingness to pay for information and estimated amounts as well as the estimated distance from the nearest market.

Data on the farmers’ socio-economic characteristics was analysed using SPSS Version 20 software to obtain descriptive statistics. Multinomial logit regression was used to analyse the choice of marketing channel while logit regression was used to evaluate determinants of vertical and horizontal integration. The mean difference between integrated and non-integrated smallholder dairy farmers was analysed using the‘t’ statistic.

6.2.1 Small Holder Dairy Farmers Socio-economic Characteristics.

Majority of households were male headed households 76 percent with an average age of between 45-54 years for the household heads. The average land size per household was between 1-2 acres per household. On average, majority of household heads had at least secondary

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education, 52.3 percent while for 23.6 percent of households had the only attained primary education with 15 percent having attained at least college education while a further 8 percent had attained university education. Over 80 percent of the households kept Friesian dairy breed while about 5 percent of households purely kept Ashyre breed while the remainder reared a combination of different dairy cattle breeds. Zero grazing was the most common dairy rearing system practiced by farmers. The dominance of zero grazing system could be attributed to better feed management and better cattle feeding practices associated with that system especially in presence of limited land sizes.

The mean average monthly household income from dairy was about Kshs 15,000-20,000. About 38 percent of the smallholder farm households had a monthly income range of Kshs. 15,000-20,000 which are the majority. About 29 percent had income ranges of Kshs. 20,000- 40,000 while only 5.8 percent of the households had an income of above Kshs. 40,000 per month.

6.2.2. Determinants of Smallholder dairy farmers Integration

Monthly turnover cost of production, fixed investment, storage, percentage of milk sold, milk cost share and external sources of milk were hypothesised to be the determinants of vertical integration. Fixed investment, turnover, volume of milk sold and external source of milk had significant relationship to the probability of a dairy enterprise integrating. Of the eleven variables hypothesised as determinants of horizontal integration, six were found to be significant. Education level, farm size, milk output, experience, monthly turnover, number of dairy cows and distance to the nearest market has a significant likelihood of a household to integrate horizontally.

106 6.2.3. Choice of Dairy Marketing Channels

The analysis of the choice of market channel was anchored on four hypothesized channels namely: farm gate produce marketing cooperative, middlemen and farmers own outlet with the produce marketing cooperative as the base category for the analysis. Thirteen variables including vertical and horizontal integration were hypothesized to be determinants of market channel choice. Education, number of dairy cows, milk output, training, milk output per cow, information access, land size, transaction costs, vertical and horizontal integration were found to be determinants of market channel choice among the dairy farmers.

Households which had not received training on agricultural production were more likely to sell through farm gate as opposed to cooperatives. The results affirm the notion that extension officers mostly target households with large land holdings which was positively related with choice of farm gate over cooperatives. Households that were headed by more educated heads sold more through the cooperatives than through the middlemen. The lesser the number of dairy cows and the lesser the total milk volume that a household had, the more likely that household was to sell through the cooperatives than through the middlemen.

Similarly, households producing more milk volumes had a higher likelihood of selling through cooperatives as opposed to farm gate marketing option. Households with bigger land sizes were more likely to sell their milk at the farm gate as opposed to selling through the cooperatives. Unlike households that are land abundant, farmers with small land sizes benefit from cash, input subsidies, and service provided by the agricultural cooperatives. Such households in order to raise their productivity substitute capital for land. Households that had information of market prices preferred to sell on their own than to sell through the dairy cooperatives

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6.2.4. Mean difference in Socio-economic Characteristics for Integrated and Non- integrated dairy farming enterprises.

All the variables among the determinants of vertical and horizontal integration were subjected to a‘t’ statistic to further evaluate the significant differences between integrated and non- integrated smallholder dairy farmers. Monthly turnover, percentage of milk sold to customers and the external source of milk revealed significant difference between vertically and non- vertically integrated dairy farmers. Education level, farm size, number of dairy cows, experience, training, monthly turnover, willingness to pay for information, cost of production and distance to the nearest market were found to be significant when analysing the mean difference between horizontally and non-horizontally integrated dairy farmers