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Abstract
In Africa, many rural farming households keep indigenous chickens (Gallus domesticus) in
traditional scavenging systems characterized by low input and low output. To improve
productivity, African governments and development partners disseminate a management
intervention package consisting of feed supplementation, vaccination, brooder, chick rearing
equipment and improved housing. Some smallholder farmers adopt the full package, while others
adopt the feed supplementation and vaccination only, or the feed supplementation and brooder
only. This study surveyed 120 households in western Kenya and analyzed the data using a
multinomial logit model to examine these adoption patterns. The factors that were found to
significantly influence adoption were access to extension services, female gender, education
level, membership of farmer groups and off-farm income. We therefore recommend the
formulation of pro-poor policy, focusing on improved extension programs, formation of farmer
groups, encouragement of off-farm income earning and improvement of smallholder farmers’
socio-economic conditions, to enable these farmers to adopt the package.