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Gender Participation and Commercialization of Smallholder Dairy Farming in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Received: 4 August 2016     Accepted: 1 November 2016     Published: 23 November 2016
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Abstract

The women dairy farmers play crucial in dairy farming though they usually have limited access to land, financial resources and other resources for production. In developing countries, over 75% of the poor are rural smallholder producers who derive their livelihoods primarily from agriculture. Kenyan smallholder dairy producers constitute 80% of the dairy producers out of which 61% are women. Smallholder dairy producers produce about 80% of total milk production and 70% of the total milk marketed. Therefore, smallholder dairy producers have their livelihoods majorly dependent on dairy farming. Thus, commercializing smallholder dairy farming will be an important pathway out of rural poverty and will be a powerful tool for the improvement and sustainability of livelihoods of smallholder dairy producers. In Uasin Gishu County, the proportion of smallholder dairy producers in the commercialization scale is 70% subsistence, 20% semi-commercialized and 10% commercialized. This therefore, indicates that commercialization level is still low and variable. This may be contributed by the influences of gender participation in smallholder dairy farming. The objective of this paper therefore was to establish the influence of Gender participation on commercialization of smallholder dairy farming. Descriptive research design was used to obtain primary data through a sample size of 384 smallholder dairy producers who were selected using stratified random sampling technique. Data analysis procedures used includes: mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. Results obtained indicate that gender participation has significant influence on commercialization of smallholder dairy farming. It is therefore recommended that the Government of Uasin Gishu County together with policy makers; planners; smallholder dairy producers and other relevant stakeholders in the dairy value chain in the County should formulate policies, strategies and design programs and projects that will address the influence of gender participation in order to achieve sustainable rural development in the County and Kenya.

Published in Urban and Regional Planning (Volume 1, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.urp.20160104.13
Page(s) 86-96
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Smallholder Dairy Producers, Commercialization of Smallholder Dairy Farming, Gender Participation, Uasin Gishu County

References
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    Moses Ageya. Kembe, Charles Ochola Omondi. (2016). Gender Participation and Commercialization of Smallholder Dairy Farming in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Urban and Regional Planning, 1(4), 86-96. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20160104.13

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    Moses Ageya. Kembe; Charles Ochola Omondi. Gender Participation and Commercialization of Smallholder Dairy Farming in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Urban Reg. Plan. 2016, 1(4), 86-96. doi: 10.11648/j.urp.20160104.13

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    AMA Style

    Moses Ageya. Kembe, Charles Ochola Omondi. Gender Participation and Commercialization of Smallholder Dairy Farming in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Urban Reg Plan. 2016;1(4):86-96. doi: 10.11648/j.urp.20160104.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.urp.20160104.13,
      author = {Moses Ageya. Kembe and Charles Ochola Omondi},
      title = {Gender Participation and Commercialization of Smallholder Dairy Farming in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya},
      journal = {Urban and Regional Planning},
      volume = {1},
      number = {4},
      pages = {86-96},
      doi = {10.11648/j.urp.20160104.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20160104.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.urp.20160104.13},
      abstract = {The women dairy farmers play crucial in dairy farming though they usually have limited access to land, financial resources and other resources for production. In developing countries, over 75% of the poor are rural smallholder producers who derive their livelihoods primarily from agriculture. Kenyan smallholder dairy producers constitute 80% of the dairy producers out of which 61% are women. Smallholder dairy producers produce about 80% of total milk production and 70% of the total milk marketed. Therefore, smallholder dairy producers have their livelihoods majorly dependent on dairy farming. Thus, commercializing smallholder dairy farming will be an important pathway out of rural poverty and will be a powerful tool for the improvement and sustainability of livelihoods of smallholder dairy producers. In Uasin Gishu County, the proportion of smallholder dairy producers in the commercialization scale is 70% subsistence, 20% semi-commercialized and 10% commercialized. This therefore, indicates that commercialization level is still low and variable. This may be contributed by the influences of gender participation in smallholder dairy farming. The objective of this paper therefore was to establish the influence of Gender participation on commercialization of smallholder dairy farming. Descriptive research design was used to obtain primary data through a sample size of 384 smallholder dairy producers who were selected using stratified random sampling technique. Data analysis procedures used includes: mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. Results obtained indicate that gender participation has significant influence on commercialization of smallholder dairy farming. It is therefore recommended that the Government of Uasin Gishu County together with policy makers; planners; smallholder dairy producers and other relevant stakeholders in the dairy value chain in the County should formulate policies, strategies and design programs and projects that will address the influence of gender participation in order to achieve sustainable rural development in the County and Kenya.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Gender Participation and Commercialization of Smallholder Dairy Farming in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya
    AU  - Moses Ageya. Kembe
    AU  - Charles Ochola Omondi
    Y1  - 2016/11/23
    PY  - 2016
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20160104.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.urp.20160104.13
    T2  - Urban and Regional Planning
    JF  - Urban and Regional Planning
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    SN  - 2575-1697
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    AB  - The women dairy farmers play crucial in dairy farming though they usually have limited access to land, financial resources and other resources for production. In developing countries, over 75% of the poor are rural smallholder producers who derive their livelihoods primarily from agriculture. Kenyan smallholder dairy producers constitute 80% of the dairy producers out of which 61% are women. Smallholder dairy producers produce about 80% of total milk production and 70% of the total milk marketed. Therefore, smallholder dairy producers have their livelihoods majorly dependent on dairy farming. Thus, commercializing smallholder dairy farming will be an important pathway out of rural poverty and will be a powerful tool for the improvement and sustainability of livelihoods of smallholder dairy producers. In Uasin Gishu County, the proportion of smallholder dairy producers in the commercialization scale is 70% subsistence, 20% semi-commercialized and 10% commercialized. This therefore, indicates that commercialization level is still low and variable. This may be contributed by the influences of gender participation in smallholder dairy farming. The objective of this paper therefore was to establish the influence of Gender participation on commercialization of smallholder dairy farming. Descriptive research design was used to obtain primary data through a sample size of 384 smallholder dairy producers who were selected using stratified random sampling technique. Data analysis procedures used includes: mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. Results obtained indicate that gender participation has significant influence on commercialization of smallholder dairy farming. It is therefore recommended that the Government of Uasin Gishu County together with policy makers; planners; smallholder dairy producers and other relevant stakeholders in the dairy value chain in the County should formulate policies, strategies and design programs and projects that will address the influence of gender participation in order to achieve sustainable rural development in the County and Kenya.
    VL  - 1
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • School of Planning and Architecture, Maseno University, Maseno, Kenya

  • School of Environment and Earth Sciences, Maseno University, Maseno, Kenya

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