Comparative assessment of livelihood roles of indigenous chicken in pastoral and agricultural households of Kenya

摘要

Indigenous chicken (IC), which have traditionally been important component of livelihoods among the agricultural households are being integrated into pastoral livelihoods as a diversification strategy to reduce vulnerability of their ruminant livestock to recurring drought events. The objective of this study was to contribute to improved livelihood benefits of indigenous chicken for food and income security in pastoral households. The study assessed household livelihood benefits from IC using the livelihood analysis framework in pastoral households compared to agricultural households. A questionnaire was administered to 256 randomly selected households in a cross sectional survey in Counties where pastoral (Turkana) and agricultural (Trans-Nzoia) households predominate. Data was subjected to chi-square test of independence when data were categorical variables and to independent sample t-tests when data were continuous variables. Compared to agricultural households, the pastoral households keeping IC were of lower literacy levels, younger age and lower income levels, had smaller flocks (6.70 vs 26.6) with more cocks (27.2% vs 10.2%) and fewer growers (40.4% vs 61.2%). Their foundation stock was more from gifts (67.2% vs 18.8%) and from Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) (29.7% vs 3.10%). Among pastoral households, the entire total monthly income was from IC (100% vs 20%) and they used the income predominantly to purchase food (89.1% vs 58.6%), to finance school fees (94.5% vs 39.8%) and to access health care services (95.3% vs 85.9%), but fewer used chicken manure in kitchen gardening (0.80% vs 92.2%). Results showed that livelihood roles of IC significantly differ between pastoral and agricultural households. Improving input and output markets and service delivery will be critical in further enhancing IC contribution to pastoral livelihoods.