Tropentag, September 16 - 18, 2015 in Berlin, Germany "Management of land use systems for enhanced food security – conflicts, controversies and resolutions"

A Net-Map Insight into the Veterinary Service Delivery in Kenya

¹Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Dairy Research Institute, Kenya
²University of Hohenheim, Inst. of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences in the Tropics and Subtropics, Germany

Abstract

Liberalisation of both clinical and artificial insemination services allowed many actors into the livestock service sector in Kenya. The actors include privately practicing veterinary service providers and non-formally trained service providers who have been operating alongside government service providers especially paraprofessionals. These actors operate in the same field, offering services to the same client “the farmer”. However, the levels of interactions and the types of interactions amongst them have not been explored. This study aims to contribute to this knowledge gap by identifying the key actors and institutional arrangements for the livestock service sector in medium potential areas of Kenya and the types of interactions among them. Socio-economic data was collected through a household survey of 128 households using a two-stage cluster sampling technique and 30 purposively selected service providers. The Net-Map tool was used to map out the key actors and their interactions in the course of service delivery to farmers. Descriptive statistics revealed that 59% of all cases were attended by animal health assistants who are the main service providers, with private animal health assistants attending to 38% of all the cases. The Net-Map analysis revealed the significant role played by the privately practicing animal health assistants and the reporting and referral, which are regulatory mechanisms that have evolved to be in place post liberalisation period. The delivery of some services by non-formally trained paraprofessionals calls for stronger regulatory mechanisms to weed out any form of malpractice to unsuspecting farmers and enhance the level of professionalism in the industry.

Keywords: Animal health, Kenya, liberalisation, net-map insight, smallholder dairy

Contact Address: Tobias Onyango K'oloo, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Dairy Research Institute, P. O. Box 25, 20117 Naivasha, Kenya, e-mail: koltobayasyahoo.com