Cost efficiency of improved indigenous chicken producers in Kenya: A stochastic frontier approach

Indigenous chicken (IC) is kept by 80% of the rural population for both meat and egg production in Kenya. However, IC has been dogged by numerous challenges leading to low productivity. These challenges include; low growth rate, low egg production and high incidences of pests and diseases. In order to overcome these problems KARI (Kenya Agricultural Research Institute) now KALRO (Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research organization) improved the local indigenous chicken and called it the KARI improved indigenous chicken which matures at four and half months (starts laying and ready for meat), lays 180 to 250 eggs per year compared to 60 to 100 of the IC in the same period. A stochastic frontier function was used to analyze data collected from 384 small holder improved indigenous chicken producers from three counties of Kenya. This was to measure the cost efficiency of these producers. The study indicated that the mean cost efficiency score was low (39%) though there was room for improvement. Cost of purchased and unpurchased feeds, cost of labour and equipment cost were significant at 1% while veterinary cost and cost of transport were statistically significant at 5%. Some socio-economic factors that influenced a farmers cost efficiency are, size of household, access to extension services, distance to both input and output markets and distance to the nearest tarmac road. The result indicate that farmers are not utilizing available resources effectively and therefore there is need for capacity building on management practices.