New journal article - Research evidence accelerates process of Kenya dairy policy reform

The collaborative Smallholder Dairy Project which was implemented from 1997 to 2005 played a pivotal role in bringing about dairy policy change in Kenya, speeding up a process and outcome that, without the project, may have come many years later.

This is one of the key findings of a recently published (July 2010, online) ex post assessment of the impact of the revised Kenya dairy policy, carried out by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and partners.

Titled Kenyan dairy policy change: Influence pathways and economic impacts, the paper is published in the journal World Development.

Funded largely by the UK Department for International Development, the Smallholder Dairy Project was a collaborative research and development project involving the Kenya Ministry of Livestock Development, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and ILRI.

The impact assessment found that behavioural changes in dairy sector participants arising from the policy and regulatory reforms led to an average 9% reduction in milk-marketing margins, and a significant increase in the number of licensed small-scale milk vendors.

The policy change also brought about significant economic benefits to producers, consumers and small-scale milk vendors.

"Small-scale dairy operators have profited from quick, relatively high volume turnovers, and as a result, welfare benefits accruing to small-scale milk vendors increased," the paper reports.

"A large proportion of the small-scale milk vendors are also producers who have substantially benefited from the policy change... some of these benefits were also captured by consumers," the study concludes.

Read the abstract here.

Citation
Kaitibie S, Omore A, Rich K and Kristjanson P. 2010. Kenyan dairy policy change: Influence pathways and economic impacts. World Development 38(10): 1494-1505.