Adoption of East Coast Fever Vaccine among Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Kenya: The Case of North Rift Kenya

Abstract

Diseases are a major constraint limiting dairy cattle production, with East Coast Fever (ECF) ranking among those of high economic importance. The high cost of ECF control and treatment led to the development of the ECF vaccine, which is envisaged to be safer, cheaper and effective. The objective of this study was to identify factors influencing the uptake of this technology. One hundred and eighty one (181) randomly sampled smallholder dairy farmers from North Rift Kenya, where the vaccine had been introduced, were used to estimate the determinants of uptake of East Coast Fever (ECF) vaccine in these areas. Results showed that the vaccine was likely to be adopted by relatively well-off households whose main source of income was off-farm employment, had relatively large herd sizes and could afford to practise on-farm tick control. Farmers with higher levels of education and advanced in age were also likely to adopt the vaccine. The paper derives important policy implications for enhanced ECF vaccine uptake in smallholder dairy systems in Kenya.