Farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its implication on livestock production in mixed-farming system areas of Bale highlands, Southeast Ethiopia; Challenges and extents of Soil and Water Conservation measures in Guba-Lafto Woreda of North Wollo, Ethiopia; Evaluation of milk production performance of lactating Fogera cows fed with urea and effective micro-organisms treated rice straw as basal diet.

E3 Journal of Agricultural Research and Development

E3 Journal of Agricultural Research and Development Vol. 4 (1) pp. 001-006, January 2014; © E3 Journals; ISSN 2276-9897


Rural poverty and input use efficiency in smallholder dairy farms in western Kenya

DC Otieno 1 * , Nyabundi J 1 , Odhiambo MO 1
1 Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development Maseno University, P.O.Box Private Bag Maseno, Kenya
*Corresponding Author E-mail: cotienous@yahoo.com
Accepted 1 January 2014

Abstract

Increasing agricultural productivity depends on the adoption of modern technology that involves the use of modern improved technical embodied inputs. However, farmers have different production decisions and ability to source and use the available inputs. In a study among smallholder dairy farmers in Western Kenya to establish their input use levels using profit maximizing method and marginality principles in making decision, the levels of use of land, capital, concentrate and labor were analyzed. The study found that land, capital, concentrate were underutilized while labor was excessively used. It was concluded that the large size of unskilled labor force was the cause of high poverty among the rural population. This is because farmers prefer using cheap unskilled labor that is not highly productive leading to low output from the dairy farming. The other three expensive factors are underutilized. It was thus recommended that poverty can be reduced through improvement of labor skills through training and farmer education on use of modern production technology packages would encourage their use and lead to increased agricultural production. Based on Says law the demand for skilled labor would lead to a decline of unskilled labor force in the rural areas due to increasing better wage rates and thus a decline in the levels of poverty.

Keywords: efficiency, inputs, smallholder, dairy, Kenya.

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