Abstract
Trypanosomiasis a widespread constraint in livestock production, mixed farming and human health in Africa has necessitated development of several technologies to ameliorate the effects of the disease. However delivery of these technologies to farmers has been undertaken on trial and error basis without a proper strategy leading to more failure than success and wastage of scarce resources. The purpose of this paper was to carry out an analysis of transaction costs associated with the use of communal crushpen in tsetse fly and trypanosomiasis control among smallholder cattle farms in Busia County, Kenya. The study utilized cross-sectional survey design and was guided by the New Institutional Economics approach. Stratified and simple random sampling technique was adopted to get 211 respondents. Data was collected by use of structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Conjoint results showed that price was the most important factor influencing the farmers’ decision for crushpen use, accounting for 55.58%; distance accounted for 20.7% while trust accounted for 14.6% and group affiliation 8.7%. It is recommended that crush pens should be close to farms, managed by trustworthy people preferably belonging to farmers’ groups and charges levied for spraying the cows should be within the reach of farmers. The necessity of developing affordable Tsetse fly and Trypanosomiasis control methods in the war against Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis is supported by this study.
Highlights
Trypanosomiasis is one of the most economically important diseases of man and livestock in Africa (GOK, 2011)
The social and economic consequences of Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis (T&T) are serious with losses in livestock and agricultural productivity in Africa estimated at US $1.3 billion a year (GOK, 2011)
Economic loses attributed to tsetse and trypanosomiasis is through the following: cost of treatment to humans and livestock, mortality of infected animals and loss of human lives, unproductive sick people, abortion, loss of milk, loss of animal draught power and inability to plough at all in certain areas, inability to graze in certain areas, the inability to market livestock, or lower prices obtained for trypanosomiasis affected animals and poor body conditions making animals unsuitable for slaughter for meat, loss of foreign exchange through imports of drugs and lost opportunity to export livestock and livestock products (GOK, 2011)
Summary
Trypanosomiasis is one of the most economically important diseases of man and livestock in Africa (GOK, 2011). The social and economic consequences of Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis (T&T) are serious with losses in livestock and agricultural productivity in Africa estimated at US $1.3 billion a year (GOK, 2011). Economic loses attributed to tsetse and trypanosomiasis is through the following: cost of treatment to humans and livestock, mortality of infected animals and loss of human lives, unproductive sick people, abortion, loss of milk, loss of animal draught power and inability to plough at all in certain areas, inability to graze in certain areas, the inability to market livestock, or lower prices obtained for trypanosomiasis affected animals and poor body conditions making animals unsuitable for slaughter for meat, loss of foreign exchange through imports of drugs and lost opportunity to export livestock and livestock products (GOK, 2011)
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