Abstract

Kuresoi North Sub-County has experienced a rapid expansion in milk production and there exist both formal and informal milk market outlets. With these abundant opportunities, much of the produced quantities of milk are expected to enter the market and farmers’ livelihoods be improved. However, it is not clear whether the smallholder milk producers are exploiting the existing and emerging market opportunities through the choice of market outlets. The objective of this study was to identify factors influencing choice of milk market outlets among small holder dairy farmers in Kuresoi North sub-county. A total of 196 respondents were selected using multistage sampling and a semi-structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data. SPSS and STATA were used to analyze the data. Results showed that occupation of the household, group marketing, access to credit, distance to market point, number of cows, milk volume, price of milk and type of breed significantly influenced the choice of milk marketing outlets. The study recommends that the county government in collaboration with other stakeholders in the milk sector should increase marketing information and capacity building by promoting expansion of dairy farming and linking the farmers to alternative markets thus improving their welfare.

Key words: Smallholder milk producers, market outlet, choice of market outlet.