Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: Methods and applications to indigenous cattle in Kenya

There is increasing global concern about the potential long term consequences of loss of domestic animal diversity. International agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity encourage the design of policies that convey economic incentives for conservation of genetic resources employed...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Ruto, E.S.K.
Formato: Tesis
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: University of Newcastle 2004
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/81578
_version_ 1855535738023575552
author Ruto, E.S.K.
author_browse Ruto, E.S.K.
author_facet Ruto, E.S.K.
author_sort Ruto, E.S.K.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description There is increasing global concern about the potential long term consequences of loss of domestic animal diversity. International agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity encourage the design of policies that convey economic incentives for conservation of genetic resources employed in agriculture. Of particular interest is the situation in developing countries where on one hand, livestock make the greatest contribution to human livelihoods and food security while on the other, genetic erosion has placed many adapted breeds that survive well in low input agriculture and extreme environments, typical of these countries, at risk of loss. An important goal is the development of policies and strategies for conservation and sustainable utilisation of these resources. Economic valuation tools for farm animal genetic resources (AGR) would contribute to this goal by providing information for decision making. It is from this background that this study, with special reference to indigenous cattle in Kenya, focuses on the nature of values associated with AGR and the methodological approaches that can be used to assign value, as a prerequisite to improved understanding of some of the forces that are driving their decline and designing well targeted economic incentives for their conservation and sustainable management. The empirical approach involves a systematic investigation of preferences over cattle traits and breeds in Kenyan livestock markets. Revealed preference (market transactions) and stated preference (choice experiment) surveys were conducted concurrently amongst the same population of respondents. The results of the two approaches are first compared with the aim of assessing the performance of the stated preference approach in valuing cattle traits through an external test of preference consistency. The choice experiment data is subsequently employed to estimate a series of discrete choice models aimed at characterising heterogeneity in valuations across and within various segments of buyers. The study demonstrates the potential usefulness of choice experiments in valuing genetic traits expressed by livestock and provides empirical evidence to suggest that breed preferences are generally not in favour of indigenous cattle in Kenya. The implications for conservation and breeding policies are drawn.
format Tesis
id CGSpace81578
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2004
publishDateRange 2004
publishDateSort 2004
publisher University of Newcastle
publisherStr University of Newcastle
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace815782023-02-15T11:17:59Z Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: Methods and applications to indigenous cattle in Kenya Ruto, E.S.K. agriculture livestock There is increasing global concern about the potential long term consequences of loss of domestic animal diversity. International agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity encourage the design of policies that convey economic incentives for conservation of genetic resources employed in agriculture. Of particular interest is the situation in developing countries where on one hand, livestock make the greatest contribution to human livelihoods and food security while on the other, genetic erosion has placed many adapted breeds that survive well in low input agriculture and extreme environments, typical of these countries, at risk of loss. An important goal is the development of policies and strategies for conservation and sustainable utilisation of these resources. Economic valuation tools for farm animal genetic resources (AGR) would contribute to this goal by providing information for decision making. It is from this background that this study, with special reference to indigenous cattle in Kenya, focuses on the nature of values associated with AGR and the methodological approaches that can be used to assign value, as a prerequisite to improved understanding of some of the forces that are driving their decline and designing well targeted economic incentives for their conservation and sustainable management. The empirical approach involves a systematic investigation of preferences over cattle traits and breeds in Kenyan livestock markets. Revealed preference (market transactions) and stated preference (choice experiment) surveys were conducted concurrently amongst the same population of respondents. The results of the two approaches are first compared with the aim of assessing the performance of the stated preference approach in valuing cattle traits through an external test of preference consistency. The choice experiment data is subsequently employed to estimate a series of discrete choice models aimed at characterising heterogeneity in valuations across and within various segments of buyers. The study demonstrates the potential usefulness of choice experiments in valuing genetic traits expressed by livestock and provides empirical evidence to suggest that breed preferences are generally not in favour of indigenous cattle in Kenya. The implications for conservation and breeding policies are drawn. 2004 2017-06-16T09:03:43Z 2017-06-16T09:03:43Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/10568/81578 en Limited Access University of Newcastle Ruto, E.S.K. 2004. Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: Methods and applications to indigenous cattle in Kenya. PhD thesis. University of Newcastle.
spellingShingle agriculture
livestock
Ruto, E.S.K.
Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: Methods and applications to indigenous cattle in Kenya
title Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: Methods and applications to indigenous cattle in Kenya
title_full Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: Methods and applications to indigenous cattle in Kenya
title_fullStr Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: Methods and applications to indigenous cattle in Kenya
title_full_unstemmed Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: Methods and applications to indigenous cattle in Kenya
title_short Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: Methods and applications to indigenous cattle in Kenya
title_sort economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources methods and applications to indigenous cattle in kenya
topic agriculture
livestock
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/81578
work_keys_str_mv AT rutoesk economicvaluationoffarmanimalgeneticresourcesmethodsandapplicationstoindigenouscattleinkenya