Advances in dairy Research
Open Access

Abstract

A Holistic Review of the Kenyan Dairy Sector: Evidence for Transformative Interventions

Geoffrey Ochieng Otieno, Mathew Gicheha

Kenya's dairy industry plays economic role both at household and national levels. It is one of the largest and advanced in the Africa continent. Despite the importance, the sector is characterised by low productivity and profitability. This is despite being one of the most supported agricultural sectors in terms of financing and research. We hypothesised that failure to approach the sector holistically limits the investments benefits. We further noted that the first step in designing dairy industry improvement programmes would be holistic review of the sector. This paper emanated from a study that undertook a holistic review of the Kenyan dairy sector for economic transformative interventions. The study provides evidence through multidimensional and non-sequential review of the sector. The study used explorative approach. Extensive interviews and systematic search of scientific publications complemented with grey literature search and review provided the necessary data or information used in testing our hypothesis. The findings indicated that the different dimensions of the dairy sector are mutually dependent and complex with numerous limitations. Dairy sector is not only technological but is also social in nature. The study recommends interventions that accurately describe the various dimensions of the sector. This is dependent on successful mobilization of key dairy value chain stakeholders through involvement of a versatile approach to adapt effectively to changing trends and transformative perspectives.

Published Date: 2021-11-24;