Intention to Adopt Improved Indigenous Chicken Breeds among Smallholder Farmers in Machakos County, Kenya. Do Sociopsychological Factors Matter?
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Date
2023
Authors
Kamau, Christopher N
Majiwa, Eucabeth B
Otieno, Geoffrey O
Kabuage, Lucy W
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
Consumption of poultry meat, eggs, and other animal-sourced commodities has dramatically
risen by almost 86%, with the demand of indigenous chicken products almost doubling over
the past few decades. In Kenya, poultry farmers prefer indigenous chicken due to their
resilience to harsh climatic conditions, high feed conversion rates, delicious end products,
ability to scavenge and potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions among other factors.
Despite the high demand for poultry and its products, the gap between demand and production
remains high. Poultry farmers try to keep pace with the demand by integrating the
recommended improved IC breeds into their production system. Although there exists some
understanding on the determinants of the farmers to adopt improved IC, still there is scanty
information on how socio-psychological factors influence the intention to adoption improved
IC among the farmers in Kenya. Thus, this study sought to investigate the determinants of
intention to adopt improved IC while specially focusing on the role of socio-psychological
factors. A total of 374 IC farmers in Machakos county were selected using a multistage
sampling technique. Partial Least Square - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was
employed to analyze the data. Results from descriptive statistics showed that approximately
90% of who IC farmers in the study area were aware of the improved indigenous chicken
breeds. However, the adoption of the improved IC was below average (44.9%). The path
analysis results revealed that Subjective Norm (SN) was the main determinant of farmer’s
intention to adopt improved IC breeds, followed by Attitude (ATT) and Perceived Behavioral
Control (PBC). The study recommends more emphasis to be given to psycho-social issues
through well designed public and private interventions that will promote adoption of improved
breeds among IC farmers.
Description
Article
Keywords
Structural Equation Modelling, Improved Indigenous Chicken, Intention, Adoption, Awareness
Citation
Kamau, C., Majiwa, E. B., Otieno, G. O., & Kabuage, L. W. Intention to Adopt Improved Indigenous Chicken Breeds Among Smallholder Farmers in Machakos County, Kenya. Do Socio-Psychological Factors Matter?. Available at SSRN 4389262.