Using hubs to increase smallholder farmers’ access to services: Experiences from the East

Africa Dairy Development Project

Gender and Market Oriented Agriculture (AgriGender 2011) Workshop Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

31st January–2nd February 2011

Isabelle Baltenweck and Immaculate Omondi

Basic project information• Vision: doubling household dairy income by year 10

through integrated interventions in dairy production, market-access and knowledge application.

• Target of 179,000 families• 4 (and a half) year pilot phase in Kenya, Rwanda and

Uganda• Consortium led by Heifer International, with

TechnoServe, ILRI, ABS-TCM and ICRAF• Most activities involve involvement of farmers’ groups

– Small groups of 15 to 30 farmers, for training– Larger groups (500 +), who owns cooler or manages the

bulking centre

Cornerstone of the project: the hub approach

Advantages of the hub approach• Improved access to inputs and services

– Physical availability– Quality– Price (bulk purchase)– Possibility to purchase on credit using the “check-

off” system

• Improved access to milk market– Chilling plant– Or bulking raw milk centre (traditional hub)

Transforming Chilling plants to Business Hubs

TRANSPORTERSTRANSPORTERS

TESTINGTESTING

FARMERSFARMERS

FIELD DAYSFIELD DAYS

FEED FEED SUPPLYSUPPLY

AI & AI & EXTENSIONEXTENSION

VILLAGE BANKSVILLAGE BANKS

OTHER RELATED OTHER RELATED MEsMEs

HARDWARE SUPPLIERSHARDWARE SUPPLIERS

CHILLING HUBCHILLING HUB

ILRI role in EADD

• In charge of baseline survey• Technical support to specific activities (feed

and traditional market)• “knowledge broker”- EADD is a pilot project

– capture and share lessons– pilot tests “best bets”

Hypotheses testedThere is no difference between male and female

headed households regarding:• registration • shareholding• milk sale to chilling plants• use of services at hub Data do not allow us to do look at intra

households decision making

Sampling and Data Collection

Consultative Participatory Process

Structured Dairy Farmer Household Interviews

Criteria obtained from 2008 & 2009 Baseline survey ILRIExisting Hub

Advanced - KipkarenNew HubStarter - Kaptumo

301 Households

Non-participating Households

Hub participating Households

New Hub Emerging - Kabiyet

Data used

• Data collected from 301 dairy households in Kenya

– registered at the EADD hub (56%)

– Non-registered households (44%)

• Household socio-economic data collected

– Farmer characteristics

– Farm characteristics

– Hub participation

– Farmer preferences

Registration to the Hub

% Male headed households

% Female headed households

n % n %

Households registered in EADD hubs 143 57 23 46Households not registered in EADD hubs but have registered in other group (KCC/ self-help groups) 1 <1 1 2Households not registered in EADD hubs or any other group 107 43 26 52

total 251 100 50 100.00

Households are encouraged to register at the hub when they deliver milk or access inputs or services. Data are kept by the hub management. The service is free.

There are more registered households among male headed households than among female headed households (difference not statistically significant)

Who is registered?

Relatively large proportion of spouse (women) is registered in male headed households, either on her own (26% of the households) or jointly with head (7%).

Challenges with group registration

Reasons Frequency Percentage Insufficient/ irregular milk production/ new to dairy farming 46 35.11 unaware of the chilling plant and its activities 36 27.48 no reason-not convinced/ never thought of it/ not interested 14 10.69 no Chilling plant/ waiting for the Chilling plant 11 8.4 Chilling plant is located far from Household (transport and access) 7 5.34 prefer cash payments/low milk prices offered 5 3.82 Inability to raise the required finances (shares and membership fees) 5 3.82 no clear benefit in joining- milk marketing 4 3.05 Mistrust/ lack of confidence in the management 2 1.53 Fear of mismanagement from previous experience (e.g. collapse of KCC) 1 0.76 No clear benefit in joining- access to inputs and services 0 0 Total 131 100

Provide more and better information to potential beneficiaries

ShareholdingIn Chilling Plant hubs, companies are set up to own cooler and equipment. Farmers are encouraged to buy shares

•Most households have not bought shares (“wait and see attitude”)•No major difference between male and female headed households

Milk marketing

No difference in percentage of male and female headed households selling milk to chilling plants

Reasons for not delivering milk

Insufficient/ irregular milk production 40% low prices offered - No clear benefit from service 24% Cooler not yet installed 12% Delayed payments 7% poor quality service &/ or terms of service 7% service located far from household 4% Other 5% Interventions- Training on feed management; planning for dry season feeding- Price… how to make CP profitable and still pay “good” price to farmers??

Use of hub services

•Fewer female headed households use Animal Health services, Agrovet and Feed store and Artificial Insemination•This is likely to have negative impact on milk production

Decision to sell milk to chilling plant or purchase inputs at the hub

milk marketinguse of input &

services

Variables Coef. P>z Coef. P>z

1 if head is male, 0 if female 0.7 0.14 -0.32 0.68

Education of Head (years of schooling) 0.05 0.36 -0.11 0.17

Household size 0.1 0.36 0.02 0.891 if head registered as member of hub, 0 otherwise 1.81** 0.04 1.55 0.111 if spouse registered as member of hub, 0 otherwise 1.45 0.15 3.21** 0.01

Value of shares paid in USD (1 USD=Kshs.80) 0.02 0.1 0.07** 0.01

Number of total livestock kept (TLU)0.21**

* 0 0.08 0.35

1 if household keeps exotic cattle, 0 otherwise 1.24 0.17 0.74 0.471 if household keeps crossbred cattle, 0 otherwise 1.48 0.09 1.97** 0.05

No significant effect on decision to sell milk or purchase inputs

Challenges with Hub Agrovet shop

Challenges with Hub AI services

Conclusions• About 70 hubs, of which 13 do not have chilling plants

(traditional market, bulking raw milk)• Hub approach provides a flexible way to provide input and

output services to small farmers, many of them are women• It however requires good governance structure and a lot of

“facilitation” to reach sustainability• Some adjustments needed for the women to participate,

and benefit fully• To better understand what’s working (and not working),

pilot testing of interventions targeted at women, the poor and the youth planned this year– Women‘ group purchase of shares– Subsidized access to inputs and services