Determinants of milk cooling plant adoption and intensity of use by small holder farmers in Nandi County, Kenya: A bi-probit analysis

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International Journal of Development Research

Determinants of milk cooling plant adoption and intensity of use by small holder farmers in Nandi County, Kenya: A bi-probit analysis

Abstract: 

Agricultural growth is considered a very close link to rural development and hence poverty alleviation. There’s therefore an urgent need for sustainable increase in agricultural productivity through adoption of new and efficient technologies to improve food security, alleviate poverty and stimulate economic growth. Efforts have been made by the Kenyan government and other developing countries such as Rwanda together with Non-governmental organizations such as Heifer International to introduce and disseminate new farming technologies by alleviating economic constraints of technology adoption with the aim of increasing agricultural productivity and increasing farmers’ incomes. The study empirically determined the factors that affected adoption of milk cooling plants in Nandi County. The study utilized cross-sectional farm household data which was collected from a sample size of 1662 randomly selected farmers from the dairy population of Nandi County using a structured questionnaire and through face-to-face interviews. Multi-stage sampling procedure involving a combination of purposeful and random sampling procedures was used to draw a representative sample. The results from individual probit, heteroskedastic and Biprobit models showed that farmer characteristics such as age, education level and gender significantly affected the decision to adopt milk cooling plants with p-value of < 0.05. Institutional and economic factors such as access to credit, extension visits, income from milk sales and transport cost and distance to cooling plants also had a significant effect on adoption of MCP.  It was concluded that farmers characteristics, institutional and socio-economic factors determine the adoption of milk cooling plants in Nandi county.

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