Effect of on-farm feed establishment, conservation and formulations innovation platforms on milk productivity

Cultivated forages play a major role in the diets of smallholder dairy producers' animals as well as the survival of their farm businesses. These forages, which include a range of grasses and legumes, are vital for dairy cattle productivity and income for smallholder dairy farmers. Efforts to promote feed establishment, conservation and formulation have been geared towards the use of innovation platforms. However, there is limited empirical evidence on effect on-farm innovation platform trainings on smallholder farmers’ milk productivity. This paper sought to fill this knowledge gap by examining the effect of on-farm feed establishment, conservation and formulations innovation platforms on milk productivity of smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya. An action-based research and cross-sectional survey was conducted in two wards (Ololmasani and Kapsasian) in Kenya and the data was collected from a total of 100 smallholder dairy farmers (50 of the participants who were trained on feed establishment, conservation and formulation). Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square, and regression analysis. The results showed that majority of the respondents (72%) did not store any forage in their farm. For those who stored, the most common forage stored were hay (10%), silage (8%) and both at 10%. Concerning the factors that influence the probability to be the included in innovation platform training, the logit regression results indicated that education level of household head (z= 3.73), land size under dairy farming (z= 2.39), experienced shortage of feeds (z=2.71) and trained on silage making (z=2.3) had a positive effect. While, work of household head (z=-1.97) and distance to nearest output market (z=-1.9) had negative and significant effect. Smallholder farmers who participated in the innovation platform training had higher milk productivity of 14.10 liters, compared to 9.72 liters of non-participants. The regression analysis indicates that participation in innovation platform training increases milk productivity by 4.38 units. This study confirms that training under innovation platform plays great role to bring change in dairy technology adoption which further enhance milk productivity and smallholder farmers’ income.