Farmers’ Attitude towards Risk on Indigenous Chicken in Nyanza Region

Abstract

Kenya has an estimate of 25.9 million indigenous chicken that support livelihood of over 21 million people in rural areas. Indigenous chicken production in Kenya is mainly under extensive and semi intensive systems which are characterized by high mortality rates resulting from disease outbreak, predation, poor feed quality and inbreeding. An understanding of the farmers’ attitude towards production risks is important for effective management of the risks. However, there is limited information on farmers’ behaviour towards risk on indigenous chicken.Therefore this study aimed at assessing the attitude of the farmers towards risk on indigenous chicken. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaire. Multi stage sampling procedure was used to sample 240 indigenous chicken farmers from a target population of 598 indigenous chicken farmers in Nyanza region. Safety-first principle was used to estimate the farmers’ attitudes towards risk on indigenous chicken. Results revealed that cost of feeds was the most significant input in the indigenous chicken production. The study also found that all the indigenous chicken farmers exhibited intermediate risk aversion. Packages of technological and institutional practices should be tailored towards the risk attitude of the farmers for successful implementation of such development programmes. Appropriate agricultural policies should be developed to reduce risk such as agricultural insurance.