THE INFLUENCE OF LIVESTOCK POLICY AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTIVITY PROGRAMS ON PASTORAL PRODUCTION IN GARISSA COUNTY, KENYA
THE INFLUENCE OF LIVESTOCK POLICY AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTIVITY PROGRAMS ON PASTORAL PRODUCTION IN GARISSA COUNTY, KENYA
Barbara B. Moguche Ombasa - Master of Public Policy and Administration Student at Kenyatta University, Kenya
Dr Felix Kiruthu. - Lecturer, Department of Public Policy and Administration at Kenyatta University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
The effective implementation of livestock policies and programmatic interventions is critical for the development of the pastoral production system in Kenya. Although much emphasis has been put on identifying the challenges that exacerbate the devastating effects in the livelihoods of the pastoral community, there is a critical need to identify favourable policies, best practices and a comprehensive implementation framework that are better tuned to the changing trends of pastoral way of life and examine their influence on pastoral production at the County level. The study aimed to examine the influence of livestock policy and livestock productivity programs on pastoral production. The study also identified the challenges faced in the implementation of livestock policy and livestock productivity programs by the Garissa County government. The study was based on (Hardin,1968) Tragedy of the Commons theory to establish how government regulation and the development of a collective institutional action arrangement influences the effective management of commonly shared natural resources such in a pastoral production system. The descriptive survey research design was adopted. Pastoralist Field Schools (PFS) members involved in best practices capacity building approaches for identifying challenges and testing possible solutions for improved pastoral production were the target population of the study. The study used stratified purposive sampling approach to sample PFS in Garissa County. Structured questionnaires of Likert format were used. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis to obtain inferential and descriptive statistics. The study used frequencies, percentages tables and pie charts for data visualization. The study established that the national livestock policy covered issues such as livestock marketing, finance and insurance as well as human/wildlife interaction with livestock that have a significant influence on pastoral production. The study revealed that the achievement of meat and milk production were highly dependent on livestock productivity programs. Also, the study found that county funding had a significant influence on the pastoral production in Garissa and that multi-stakeholder collaborative systems had significantly helped mitigate public funding challenges faced by the County. The study recommends that the Garissa County should establish a reporting, monitoring and evaluation system for establishing the impact of livestock policy implementation, impact of livestock programs for improving animal productivity and develop synergies among stakeholders to improve the strategies and plans of actions for an optimum and significant boost to pastoral economic development.
