Efficiency of Milk Production Among Small Holder Dairy Farms in Kenya.

      Аннотация: Milk production in Kenya is mainly by small Holder dairy farms; targeting food, employment and income generation. There are about 3.5 million cows producing a paltry 4 Billion Kilograms annually. Milk yield per cow per day has averaged only 5 Kilograms for decades. Past studies left a lacuna on the efficiency of production. An evaluation of milk production efficiency among dairy farms in Kenya established their technical and cost efficiencies to be 83.7 and 95.6 percent, respectively. They were inefficient. The number of milking cows, amount of roughage and mineral supplements determined the amount of milk a farm produced. The costs of roughage and labour influenced the total cost of milk production. The produced milk was uncompetitive in the market. The animals were overstocked and underfed in an average two-acre farm. Keeping of smaller dairy breeds such as Jerseys and adoption of any approaches that could lower the cost of farming inputs were recommended. The on-going land sub-division policy was recommended for discontinuation.

Ключевые слова: Cost, Dairy, Efficiency, milk, Technical, Small Holder