Institutional constraints affecting dairy development in western Kenya

This study examined institutional constraints and agribusiness capacity of key institutions involved in dairy development in Western Kenya. Using checklists and interview guides, data was collected from Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), farmer groups, credit institutions, agro dealer feed stockists, Inseminators, County livestock department and dairy cooperatives. The results showed that despite developing many feed technologies, KARI lacked agribusiness orientation which limited the scaling up and dissemination of improved technologies to target users. Fear to take loans on the part of farmers, and lack of tailor made loans targeting dairy farmers’ priority needs affected availability of credit. The protein content of commercial dairy meal were not labelled on bags by feed companies and analysis showed that the Kenyan dairy farmer was exposed to low quality concentrate due to lack of an inspectorate service. The study also found that the devolved county governments lacked dairy strategic plan, while Artificial Insemination services were constrained by lack of liquid nitrogen, semen bank and testing laboratory. Finally, assessment of dairy cooperatives showed they were still embedded in traditional functions and had not taken off on a business path. It is concluded that key challenges affecting dairy development and farmer groups in particular are mainly institutional rather than technological. Creating an enabling policy, institutional and regulatory framework would be key to the sector’s growth. Further studies should be carried out to identify specific agribusiness impact model that would revitalise dairy development in the region.