Existing Dairy Farming Technologies among Rural Women in Khwisero, Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

Rural women play key roles in Kenyan dairy farming. In an effort to establish factors of adoption of dairy farming technologies by rural women in Kakamega County, the researcher sought to determine the already existing technologies among them. The descriptive survey collected both qualitative and quantitative data from Khwisero sub-county, Kakamega County in Kenya. The study targeted 720 female dairy farmers in the cooperative groups in Khwisero. Random sampling was used to sample location and sub-location and to select 72 respondents. The study found several existing technologies; a mixture of the traditional and exotics ones. The main ones however were cross bred cows, improved nappier grass, mullato and sweet potatoes vines implemented on small portion of land. Nevertheless, there was no observed farm household that practiced fodder conservation technologies. Although women in the household’s understudy provided more than 50% of the labour and were usually more present on the farm on a day-to- day basis, the study established that the existing technologies were mostly influenced by the men. Therefore, the study recommended that both women and men be empowerment on the best dairy technologies for their households.