Household-level impacts of dairy cow ownership in coastal Kenya

This study uses heteroskedastic Tobit and Censored Least Absolute Deviations models to examine the impacts of dairy cow ownership on selected outcomes for a sample of 184 households in coastal Kenya. The outcomes examined include gross household cash income, gross non-agricultural income, consumptio...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nicholson, C., Thornton, Philip K., Muinga, R.W.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Wiley 2004
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/32965
_version_ 1855518950168723456
author Nicholson, C.
Thornton, Philip K.
Muinga, R.W.
author_browse Muinga, R.W.
Nicholson, C.
Thornton, Philip K.
author_facet Nicholson, C.
Thornton, Philip K.
Muinga, R.W.
author_sort Nicholson, C.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description This study uses heteroskedastic Tobit and Censored Least Absolute Deviations models to examine the impacts of dairy cow ownership on selected outcomes for a sample of 184 households in coastal Kenya. The outcomes examined include gross household cash income, gross non-agricultural income, consumption of dairy products, time allocated to cattlerelated tasks, number of labourers hired and total wage payments to hired labourers. The number of dairy cows owned has a large and statistically significant impact on household cash income; each cow owned increased income by at least 53% of the mean total income of households without dairy cows. Dairy cow ownership also increases consumption of dairy products by 1.0 litre per week, even though most of the increase in milk production is sold. The number of dairy cows has no significant effect on total labour for cattle-related tasks. However, in contrast to previous studies, labour allocation to cattle by household members decreases and labour requirements for dairy cows are met primarily by an increase in hired labour. Dairy cow ownership results in relatively modest increases in payments to hired labourers and the number of hired labourers employed. The large positive impacts on income and the substitution of hired for household labour in cattle care suggest that intensification of smallholder dairying can be beneficial as a development strategy in the region if disease and feed constraints are addressed.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace32965
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2004
publishDateRange 2004
publishDateSort 2004
publisher Wiley
publisherStr Wiley
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace329652023-12-27T19:32:10Z Household-level impacts of dairy cow ownership in coastal Kenya Nicholson, C. Thornton, Philip K. Muinga, R.W. dairy cattle cows ownership households income consumption labour models hired labour small farms This study uses heteroskedastic Tobit and Censored Least Absolute Deviations models to examine the impacts of dairy cow ownership on selected outcomes for a sample of 184 households in coastal Kenya. The outcomes examined include gross household cash income, gross non-agricultural income, consumption of dairy products, time allocated to cattlerelated tasks, number of labourers hired and total wage payments to hired labourers. The number of dairy cows owned has a large and statistically significant impact on household cash income; each cow owned increased income by at least 53% of the mean total income of households without dairy cows. Dairy cow ownership also increases consumption of dairy products by 1.0 litre per week, even though most of the increase in milk production is sold. The number of dairy cows has no significant effect on total labour for cattle-related tasks. However, in contrast to previous studies, labour allocation to cattle by household members decreases and labour requirements for dairy cows are met primarily by an increase in hired labour. Dairy cow ownership results in relatively modest increases in payments to hired labourers and the number of hired labourers employed. The large positive impacts on income and the substitution of hired for household labour in cattle care suggest that intensification of smallholder dairying can be beneficial as a development strategy in the region if disease and feed constraints are addressed. 2004-07 2013-07-03T05:25:50Z 2013-07-03T05:25:50Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/32965 en Limited Access Wiley Journal of Agricultural Economics;55(2): 175-195
spellingShingle dairy cattle
cows
ownership
households
income
consumption
labour
models
hired labour
small farms
Nicholson, C.
Thornton, Philip K.
Muinga, R.W.
Household-level impacts of dairy cow ownership in coastal Kenya
title Household-level impacts of dairy cow ownership in coastal Kenya
title_full Household-level impacts of dairy cow ownership in coastal Kenya
title_fullStr Household-level impacts of dairy cow ownership in coastal Kenya
title_full_unstemmed Household-level impacts of dairy cow ownership in coastal Kenya
title_short Household-level impacts of dairy cow ownership in coastal Kenya
title_sort household level impacts of dairy cow ownership in coastal kenya
topic dairy cattle
cows
ownership
households
income
consumption
labour
models
hired labour
small farms
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/32965
work_keys_str_mv AT nicholsonc householdlevelimpactsofdairycowownershipincoastalkenya
AT thorntonphilipk householdlevelimpactsofdairycowownershipincoastalkenya
AT muingarw householdlevelimpactsofdairycowownershipincoastalkenya