Annual Report SR-CRSP SOCIOLOGY

Kenya Dual Purpose Goat Component (KDPG)

II Research

Activity I: Impact Assessment of the KDPG

The Impact Assessment of the KDPG activity was developed to determine where else and how flexible the KDPG package was to adapting to new household production systems in other agroecological and socioeconomic environments of Kenya. The KDPG package had been developed for subsistence/peasant production systems and appeared to be attractive both in low and high rainfall areas of western Kenya. There was also a need to incorporate the SR-CRSP research activities fully into KARI, which could be done through work at two KARI centers, Katumani with dry-land farming and Mtwapa in the humid coastal belt with high rainfall and population density (Mbabu). There was an opportunity to test the performance of the fully developed four way crosses, the KDPGs.

1. Baseline

Problem Statement and Approach

In the Katumani area (Machakos district) three dominant production systems were identified. Only two were selected, the hill masses, which covers a small proportion of the total land but is heavily and recently populated. The lowland plains consist of more than two thirds of the land falling within the research mandate area for Katumani. Two districts were chosen from the Coast's Mtwapa research mandate, the Kilifi district in the north, mainly Christian and the Kwale district in the south, mainly Muslim. All these areas are characterized by small household peasant production systems, that produce for consumption and for exchange, being partially integrated to the market.

A baseline (ex-ante) survey of participating and non-participating farmers was completed in 1994 in the five clusters consisting of a total of 99 households. This survey was conducted to have a basis for comparing the changes in the production systems and economic activities of participating (those receiving KDPGs) and non-participating (waiting for the distribution of the KDPG) farmers. The objective was to capture changes in household income and sources of economic activities without having to assume that all other things remain constant (ceteris paribus).

As mentioned in last year's report, the baseline information was gathered from two clusters randomly selected from the low-lands, Kimutwa Cluster, and Mua hills of Machakos, Kitanga, and three clusters in the Coast, two of which were randomly selected, the Kilifi cluster in the Northern Coast and the Vuga cluster in the South. An additional cluster was selected of farmers that belong to a group of HPI farmers waiting for cattle. This last group (19 households) was not randomly selected.

Assessing acceptability of the Kenyan Dual Purpose Goat in the new sites depends on: the various production systems, and their respective social and economic categories, such as access to resources (land labor and forages), and the social conditions (at the household and community levels) that enable access.

Progress

Although the surveys were completed by last year's annual report, this year the coding and processing of the data took place, mostly in the U.S. (Martínez et al.). All the surveys were coded and a codebook and guide developed to allow the multidisciplinary team to have access to this information, since it is the baseline for comparison. Copies were made available to the team in August at the PAC meetings. Some overall statistics from this baseline survey are reported here. Most of this information will be used to compare them to the results of the monitoring of production in the crop-livestock systems and economic activities in a production year for both participating and non-participating families.

Demographic information of the overall sample presents the average family size of 8 members and a standard deviation of 0.28. The distribution of household according to family size can be seen in Figure 1, with the mode being seven members.

The mean average family age, an indicator of the proportion of young and adult members in the family and stage in the life cycle, is 23.25 years with a standard deviation of 0.82. Figure 2 confirms that families tend in general to be young, as a result of the number of children, with the highest frequency of mean age of 20 to 25 years. This figure also shows that there are very few families with an average age above 40, with the distribution skewed towards younger families. Averages per cluster show that families in the HPI (Matuga) cluster are older with and average of 25 years. Both clusters in Machakos have similar averages conforming to the overall mean, but higher standard deviations than the Coast. The Vuga cluster in the Southern Coast was the youngest group with an average of 21.8 years, and the lowest standard deviation of all clusters (4.9). This is the group that has been most successful in incorporating the KDPG, if it is measured by survival rate and pass-on Pass-on: farmers that have received the KDPG does have the responsibility of raising two doelings that will be given to other members of the cluster. of the goats.

Most of the land is privately owned (with or without a formal titles) in all clusters. In Machakos, 74% of reported parcel tenency was private, and 22 percent was jointly owned. The Coast districts reported 66 percent owned privately with and without land titles. Both areas had more private untitled land use. Fourteen percent of the answers on ownership of parcels was communal in the Coast clusters. Farmers farm the land in portions destined to a crop. There can be more than one portion in a parcel indicating that several different crops are being planted in the sample area. Parcels then may and are divided in portions. In the case of Machakos, the information on portions planted corresponds to the short rains season of 1992, while in the Coast it corresponds to the long rains of 1993.

There were differences in quantity of acres between the two districts, Machakos and the Coast. Figure 3 presents the averages of land area per household for all the sample ranging from 0 to 105 acres. Two peaks are at an average of 20 and 4-5 acres.

The majority of households have 1 or 2 parcels (Figure 4). This explains the high standard deviation in each cluster.

Table 1 presents the average acres of land per household in each cluster.

Main crops in both regions for the agricultural calendar including short rains of 1992 and long rains of 1993 are shown in figure 5. As expected, maize is the most commonly cropped food, producing by-products for livestock consumption. There are 102 portions of land in which maize was grown during the survey period. Portions with maize as a stand alone crop were 76, while 26 were intercropped. Two commercial crops are mentioned most frequently in second place, corresponding to Coast perennials, cashew nuts and coconuts. Cassava, a starchy staple is cultivated in 44 portions and as a stand alone crop in 32 of them. Sweet potatoes, which are a source of by-products for KDPG feeding technologies, were cultivated in 13 portions, 9 of which were in Machakos. Twelve portions of Nappier grass were reported and some farmers also mentioned Leucena, which is also used in the feeding technologies of the KDPG technological package.

Only 16 farmers in all clusters reported selling crops when the granaries were full. Most were in the Coast. In this area 45 farmers reported selling only cash crops. Twenty-nine farmers reported selling when they had money needs. Twenty were in the Machakos area.

The baseline was also developed to determine the amount and type of livestock household families manage in each cluster, to determine level of experience and nature of the production systems in terms of crop-livestock interactions. All clusters had cattle and goats in different amounts, with the Vuga cluster having the least number of cattle, therefore, the interest of forming a group to incorporate KDPGs. Table 2 presents the findings with regard to livestock composition in each cluster (n indicates the number of families in the cluster that owns these species). A higher number and percentage of farmers own cattle and goats in the dry-land areas of Machakos.