Factors influencing marketing channel choices for improved indigenous chicken farmers: insights from Baringo, Kenya
ISSN: 0007-070X
Article publication date: 19 May 2020
Issue publication date: 15 October 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Improved indigenous chicken is considered a sustainable agricultural practice with social, economic and environmental indicators. Therefore, the analysis of the choice of market channels is of considerable importance to farmers with reference to improved livelihoods and poverty alleviation in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence market channel choices among improved indigenous chicken farmers in Baringo County and to rank the determinants according to their level of importance in influencing farmer's choice of marketing channels.
Design/methodology/approach
A multistage sampling technique was employed to collect data from 209 households for the study conducted between April and July 2019, out of which, 198 useful responses were obtained. Multinomial logit regression and neural network models were used to analyze the factors influencing market channel choice based on socioeconomic, demographic and farm characteristics.
Findings
It was established that group membership, education, market distance, transport costs, farm size, cost of information and bargain costs were statistically significant in the choice of market channels (wholesaler, brokers, processors and supermarkets). With the direct consumer as the base market choice. The cost of transport had the highest normalized importance in the prediction of a farmer's selection of market channels for both radial basis function (RBF) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural networks. However, flock attributes and age of household head had the least normalized importance in MLP and RBF, respectively.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the insufficiency of resources and time, this study only focused on a small part of the country (Baringo County). However, improved indigenous chicken farming is widely practiced in Kenya. Further studies can be carried out in other counties to validate the results of this study.
Practical implications
The outcome can be used in policy implementation involving improved indigenous chicken production in Kenya.
Originality/value
This study suggests the methods aimed at enhancing poultry sector in other counties in Kenya as well as other developing countries.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by a research grant from the Jiangsu Social Science Fund Key Project “Study on the establishment and improvement of the system mechanism and policysystem of urban-rural integration and development in Jiangsu” (K0201900192), a major program of National Social Science Foundation 20ZDA045)and a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).Conflict of interest: All the authors declare no conflict of interest.
Citation
Kiprop, E.K., Okinda, C., Akter, A. and Geng, X. (2020), "Factors influencing marketing channel choices for improved indigenous chicken farmers: insights from Baringo, Kenya", British Food Journal, Vol. 122 No. 12, pp. 3797-3813. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2019-0841
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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