ANALYSIS OF FACTORS INFLUENCING FARMER PARTICIPATION IN HAY FODDER MARKETING FOR IMPROVED PERFORMANCE OF MARKET OUTLETS IN LAIKIPIA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

The increased demand for livestock products due to the growing human population has led to a rise in demand for fodder in Kenya. Fodder, thus, offers viable business opportunities for agripreneurs in the country. In order capitalize on the available market outlets and the rising demand for fodder in Laikipia County and its environs, farmers’ involvement in fodder business activities are not clearly understood. The general aim of this study was to contribute to the up- scaling of fodder production and marketing through analysis of factors that influence farmer participation in fodder markets for improved performance of market outlets in Laikipia County. The specific objectives were to: map the fodder markets, determine the factors influencing decisions, and commercialize fodder and to analyze the performance of fodder market outlets. Data was collected from 204 randomly selected fodder farmers based on a list of 769 farmers provided by the ASDSP II Laikipia and analyzed using STATA software. Functional and institutional analytical approaches were used to map the fodder markets. The Univariate and Multivariate Probit models were used to determine the factors influencing decisions to commercialize fodder. Lastly, market margin analyses were conducted to measure the performance of fodder market outlets. Findings revealed that the fodder market system holistically consisted of input providers, fodder farmers, fodder traders, fodder end-users and support/enabling institutions. The factors significantly influencing farmer participation in fodder markets were age, marketing costs, market agreements, market information access, credit access and proactivity. Further, the choice of local livestock farmers, local traders and buyers from other counties’ outlets was significantly influenced by age, experience, commercialization index, fodder quality, marketing costs, market agreement, distance to the nearest market, market information, proactivity and price. Finally, the market margin analyses pointed to favorable, attractive and viable performance of the fodder outlets. Therefore, government policies that seek to enhance collective action and networking, create business as well as address bottlenecks in various nodes of the market should be explored. Interventions to stimulate market information access, improved feed quality, market linkages and reduced marketing costs are also recommended. In order to capitalize on the existing fodder demand and viability, interventions and policies for financial and technical support for investment, formalization of the fodder market as well as market cost reduction are highly recommended.