Tropentag, September 18 - 20, 2019 in Kassel "Filling gaps and removing traps for sustainable resources development"

Village Level Dairy Goat Development Project in Kenya: A Review on Gaps that Affect Sustainability

¹Egerton University, Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Management, Kenya
²Egerton University, Dept. of Animal Sciences, Kenya

Abstract

Many development projects prioritise high-return programme interventions that contribute to mitigate food insecurity, improve nutrition, and increase the incomes of the rural poor. Key to this is the nurturing of innovations and adaptive technologies and techniques that support these outcomes. Human population pressure, ensuing land demarcation, multi-parity and multiple births, and shorter generation interval have stimulated the use of dairy goats in rural development efforts in Kenya. This has led to major good production intensification and scaling-up over the last few decades in the Kenyan dairy goat sector driven by the promise of health benefits from the dairy goat milk. Although some areas like central Kenya and Nyanza saw a major expansion, in other areas this has largely stagnated. The industry is struggling to sustain the progresses made by a number of projects. Thus, a review of the existing literature and project experiences related to dairy goat development in Kenya was performed with the aim of identifying gaps that may have contributed to the current situation.
It was found that lack of supportive policy and regulatory environment with regards to milk standards and goat sales, unsustainable breeding strategies, uncoordinated breeding system, uncoordinated milk and goat marketing, lack of technical support and inadequate stakeholder or industry player's involvement have all contributed to this scenario. In order to bring about sustainable dairy goat development in the country, these factors need to be adequately addressed. The way these identified factors are addressed will determine the success and sustainability of the dairy goat projects. Value addition, promoting quality assurance supporting development of fodder management and feeds, developing breeding strategies and investment in genetics are encouraged.

Keywords: Dairy goats, gaps, Kenya, sustainable development

Contact Address: Thomas Ogola, Egerton University, Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Management, P.O.Box 73538, 00200 Nairobi, Kenya, e-mail: ogolatdogmail.com