PROFITABILITY OF SMALLHOLDER PIG FARMING INTHARAKA-NITHI COUNTY, KENYA

MICHENI PAULINE KANANU

(BSc. AGRIBUSINESS MANAGEMENT)

A152/23009/2012

A RESEARCH PROPOSAL SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF SCIENCE IN

AGRIBUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND TRADE, KENYATTA UNIVERSITY.

Kenyatta University

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2014

DECLARATION

This proposal is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other university

Signature. ~~ .

Date ~ 1.!~1.~C?Lt:..'" .., .This proposal has been submitted with our approval as the university supervisors

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Signature r Date l..'.'~.~.~.' ..':! .

Supervisor name ..~X.~ N. ~\.~ k\~c .

Department f\.~ .kY.J. IY:~-;9)~S. .

Signature ~ ' Date 5.!I.c;IE:.I.'j.

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ABSTRACT

Pig industry sustains livelihoods of many families in Kenya. Pig rearing has been one of well-establishedindustry in Kenya following growing export markets and increasing number of healthconscious consumers. Pig production if efficiently managed has great potentials for increasingprotein supply in Kenya. Smallholder pig farms in Tharaka-Nithi County have been facingvarying and dismal profits. The main objective of this study will be to establish whichinstitutional arrangements and management factors affect the profit efficiency of small-holderpig farmers in Tharaka-Nithi County. A multi-stage purposive sampling technique will beadopted to collect cross sectional data of eighty (80) smallholder pig farmers in MaaraConstituency by the use of semi-structured interview schedules. The work will employ DataEnvelopment Analysis to come up with profit efficiency rankings among the farmers andstochastic frontier profit function will be used to analyze the factors that affect profit efficiency.The data will be processed using STATA and DEA Frontier packages. The findings could beuseful to the stakeholders of the pig industry sub sector to formulate policies pertaining to pigenterprise inputs, marketing issues and financial products and also can establish benchmarkswhich can be used as a package for enhancing and stabilizing profit efficiencies of smallholderpig farmerswhich in turn could help improve the Kenya economy.

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