Factors influencing adoption of dairy goats in Meru County, Kenya: prospects and constraints

Abstract

Improving milk production through crossbreeding of local goats with exotic breeds has increasingly become important in developing countries. Although, the dairy goat technology has been promoted in the central Kenyan highlands for more than a decade, very little documentation has been done on the uptake of the technology. A household survey was conducted among 260 randomly sampled smallholder farmers and a Probit model used to explain the influence of socio-economic and demographic characteristics, agro-ecological conditions, technological and use aspects, and external support services on the probability of adoption. Results showed that these factors are important in determining farmers' adoption decision.