3.1. Cluster Description
The five clusters selected are briefly described using the schematic positioning of their specialization and upgrading dynamics along two axes (
Figure 3): feeding system and cash crop types. These axes denote the variation and recent upgrading in farming systems that, under pressure of land shortage, intensify in different ways along two directions (as observed in clusters studied): a feeding system transition from ‘grazing with crop residue use’ (low dairy intensity—L
d) to ‘zero-grazing with planted forage’ (high dairy intensity—H
d) and a cash crop transition from ‘grains’ (low cropping intensity—L
c) to ‘horticulture and/or perennials’ (high cropping intensity—H
c).
The clusters are thus characterized as (
Table 1):
Dairy clusters—HdHc Nandi North and Nyandarua gradually specialize to dairy and become increasingly market-oriented; there is significant milk collection by cooperatives and processors; increasingly sophisticated types of service arrangements exist; other cash crops or livestock products are produced as a second activity; Nyandarua enjoys high demand for milk from processors and traders; 98% of the dairy farm herd is either crossbred or purebred exotic; potatoes come second after dairy; Nandi North has more non-dairy farmers and more medium- and large-scale farms; the choice of dairy over horticulture or perennials is still tentative.
Grain and fattening cluster—LdLc Arsi specializes in barley and wheat as cash crops, enabled by farm sizes that still allow such relatively extensive crops; for a long time, poor roads limited market access for dairy; just before roads improved around 2012, farmers adopted improved grain crop packages promoted by government and agribusiness; as a result, farmers focus on livestock activities, other than dairy, that utilize cash crop residues, but do not require daily marketing, i.e., beef, mutton, and heifer production; dairy development interventions have been occurring since the 1950s.
Perennial and horticultural crop cluster—LdHc Nandi South saw a diminishing role for dairy, as a move to high-value/ha activities occurred; farmers specialize in tea due to better support services; milk collection is almost only informal; cattle are being replaced by small livestock; semi-subsistence farming with extensive livestock and off-farm labor continues in areas unsuitable for tea and vegetable marketing.
Mixed cluster—LdHc East Shoa, some farmers specialize in dairy (Type I), others in horticulture (Type III), while in more remote areas grains prevail (Type II). In the dairy herds of interviewed farmers, only 34% of animals are crossbred or purebred exotic; both subsectors benefit from fresh food demand in the nearby metropolis; competition for land occurs between the two and with export-oriented flower farming and urban development.
In all of the five clusters, intensification pressure is high. Over the past decades, farm sizes have shrunk due to customary intergenerational subdivision of land. In addition, the Ethiopian clusters reported land scarcity due to significant withdrawal of farm land for town and infrastructure development (past two decades) and due to allocation of land to state farms (LdLc Arsi cluster, 1980s) and flower farms (LdHc East Shoa cluster, 1990s–2000s).
3.2. Analysis of Upgrading in Three Domains
Figure 4 lists the main secondary factors that were identified in this study as influencing upgrading dynamics in the clusters. Upgrading in all three domains is most advanced in H
dH
c clusters, especially in Nyandarua, as
Table 2 shows. While a number of context conditions in L
dH
c Nandi South are good, specialization toward high-value cash crops is at the cost of upgrading in dairy. In L
dH
c East Shoa, competition with cash crops explains upgrading limitations for dairy. In L
dL
c Arsi, market constraints clearly affect dairy prospects. In the latter two clusters, less favorable context factors also dampen upgrading. Observed dynamics related to these factors are described in the next sections, following steps A–C from
Figure 1. Factors with less apparent effect on upgrading dynamics were considered, but generally not described. A more detailed description of upgrading dynamics in each cluster is included as
Supplementary Material S2.
The examined clusters are under land-scarce conditions, which means that farm acreage and stocking rate (livestock units per hectare) are key indicators to observe when assessing intensification and upgrading status. A number of additional parameters—suggested by this study as potential indicators for upgrading in the three domains that score resource base, intensity of production, and market—are shown in
Figure 4.
3.2.1. Farming System Factors (A)
This section describes technical upgrading dynamics identified in the farming systems domain. The data in
Table 3 offers insight into the ongoing changes in farming and the similarities and differences between clusters.
Specialization in dairy: smaller herds and less cattle functions—With farm size dropping to an average of three to four hectares, farmers in the Ethiopian FGIs reported that they specialize and reduce herd sizes, focusing on productivity rather than number of animals by crossbreeding with exotic dairy types: ‘Two improved cows compare to ten local cows, but they need intensive care.’ Farmers did not consider classification based on cattle number or land acreage to be meaningful; rather, they classified dairy farms based on market orientation and management level (see
Table 3). This points to the ongoing transition in cattle functions in the farming system, from multipurpose (with local cattle for draft power, beef, manure, savings, social functions such as dowry, household consumption, and a small surplus for market) to more dairy-oriented, with fewer but specialized dairy cows. In Kenya, where average farm size is already well below three hectares and nearly all dairy cows have exotic blood, farmers specialize further to increase income per hectare. Breed choice is mainly between Friesian (higher producer) and Ayrshire (more disease-resistant and less heavy feeder). Entrepreneurial entrants, who have accumulated resources through employment or business, are investing in medium- to large-scale commercial farms and in advanced technology for feeding, housing, reproduction, etc., but often without commensurate investment in high quality farm labor.
Specialization in high-value crops/livestock/off-farm activities—Due to ongoing pressure on land, farmers reported that they choose livestock types and cash crops with shorter maturation time and higher margin per hectare, to offset rising land costs. Choice of crops/livestock types depends on how available options ‘fit’ within the farm, market, and context, including personal preferences and identity: especially in the Nandi clusters, farmers consider cattle-keeping an inalienable part of their identity. This brings important experience and skills, but also explains why farmers continue with dairy cattle even where the farm size barely allows for it (see
Table 3) and when competitive advantages of other livestock and crops as livelihood options outweigh those of dairy. Until some decades ago, sale of fresh milk and dairy products was subject to taboos (e.g., in L
dL
c Arsi cluster) that are only gradually losing their impact as milk undergoes commodity individuation [
47].
While dairy is being upgraded in HdHc Nyandarua, HdHc Nandi North and LdHc East Shoa clusters, it is being replaced by smaller species (such as goats, sheep, chickens, or rabbits) in LdHc Nandi South and by heifer production and/or fattening in LdLc Arsi and remote parts of Nandi and Nyandarua. Farmers increase roots/tubers/bananas and horticulture (in all clusters but Arsi) and perennials (tea, fruit trees and sugarcane, in Nandi), largely at the expense of grains. Due to more favorable market service arrangements for tea, since the 1980s 30–40% of farmers in LdHc Nandi South cluster have planted tea; this crowds out dairy, as tea plantations do not offer edible crop residues nor sufficient space for forage. In the Nandi clusters, mechanized land preparation is being replaced by manual work due to declining farm sizes and shift to perennials. In Ethiopia, draft animals are starting to be replaced by equipment such as broad bed makers and combine harvesters, due to scarcity of feed resources for draft animals. Nevertheless, the presence of draft animals explains why only one in three animals in the dairy herd is a dairy cow, compared to two in three in Kenya.
Farmers reported an increase of private business activities and casual labor in agriculture, construction, and transportation services. Around 40% of farmers indicated that they are engaged in off-farm activities, primarily in formal employment, private business, and trade. Households with jobs in the public or civil society sector are generally involved in private business as well, in which they invest their salaries.
Changes in dairy practices—The specialization mentioned above plays out in a number of ‘technology upgrades’ in terms of farming practices. Only some farmers make these changes, and there are large differences between clusters. The highest proportions of farmers who make changes are in HdHc Nyandarua and Nandi North clusters and in dairy farms in or close to towns in all clusters:
Investments in dairy genotypes using AI or improved bulls. This breed-replacement process is ongoing in Ethiopia and mostly completed in Kenya; except for in some remote, barely specialized villages, farmers in Kenya overwhelmingly keep purebred or crossbred Ayrshire, Friesian, Jersey, and Guernsey
Investments in feeding practices follow a standard pattern over time: (1) grazing and crop residues are supplemented with industrial by-products and mixed rations; (2) grazing land is paddocked; (3) investments are made in production and preservation of planted forages such as oats, maize, and Napier and Rhodes grass to counter forage shortages
Investments in animal housing in Ethiopia include new barns to house improved breeds; in Kenya, zero-grazing units and feed storage are used when intensifying further
Investments in animal health care increase; due to the failure of communal cattle dips to control tick-borne diseases, in Kenya many farmers have moved to individual spraying and some vaccination for East Coast Fever; treatment by veterinary workers is increasing, as is self-administration of drugs purchased from agro-veterinary shops, especially de-wormers; in Ethiopia, farmers use government veterinary personnel, who often provide better private service on the side.
3.2.2. Farm–Market Interaction (B)
The data in
Table 4 and
Table 5 reflect upgrading dynamics stemming from the interaction between farming system and market, which become particularly clear when comparing clusters. As input service arrangements are important in more intensive dairy and become increasingly integrated with output service arrangements,
Table 4 includes both input and output service arrangements identified. This description follows the value chain upgrading categories of
Table 2.
More sophisticated input and output service arrangements, tailored to farmer types—Dominant service arrangements range from local markets and traders in the limited market conditions of LdLc Arsi and Nandi South clusters to cooperative companies and processors, with increasingly integrated services in HdHc Nyandarua. In LdHc East Shoa cluster, processors and cooperatives are replacing the first two output service arrangements, as yet without significant upgrading in input service arrangements. In HdHc Nandi North and Nyandarua clusters, service arrangements of cooperative companies (i.e., upgraded cooperative societies) are being upgraded to integrated input and output service packages. Processors here, who source from farmer organizations and larger farms, are experimenting with integrated input and output service arrangements as well, more so in HdHc Nyandarua where competition for milk and service provision is fiercer.
Service arrangement use by farmers depends on their market integration and milk sales volumes.
Table 5 shows how different service delivery models cater to different farmer categories. Interviews revealed a strong relation between farmers’ choice of service arrangements and farm household resource level, which in turn is related to off-farm activities. For resource-poor farmers, payment conditions are most important. They mainly sell to traders, as they need today’s milk money for today’s food, and they often lack the cash to acquire external inputs and services. Smallholders with more resources tend to sell to cooperatives and processors (sometimes through self-help groups), to benefit from larger two-weekly or monthly payments that can be used for inputs and investments. However, they usually sell at least some milk to traders to benefit from higher prices and to satisfy immediate cash needs. In Kenya, the resource-endowed smallholders selling to cooperatives can benefit from input and service advancing through widespread ‘check-off’ systems, in which costs for inputs and services advanced are deducted from the next milk payment. Medium-scale farms in both countries seem to use any of the output service arrangements and mainly consider price, buyer dependability and transaction costs.
Interviews in both of the countries further indicated that increases in productivity and marketed milk volumes are necessary to be able to pay for the extra inputs and services. Farmers in Ethiopia mentioned a break-even point of 9 L/cow/day.
Chain contracting arrangements and quality assurance—Low levels of trust in the chain form a strong inhibitor to upgrading, especially in Kenya. This is evidenced by significant ‘side-selling’ of milk: farmers and farmer organizations hedge marketing risks by selling to multiple clients. Processors do the same by contracting fixed volumes with suppliers. The result is a supply network rather than a supply chain, with associated high production and transaction costs. Marketing is volume- rather than quality-driven. Marketing relationships are complicated by the stark seasonality of production, with a slump in production during the dry season, and by the seasonality of consumption due to Orthodox Christian fasting seasons in Ethiopia.
Competition in service provision—In Ethiopian clusters, government agencies are the primary input and service providers. Although the main product in LdHc Nandi South, Kenya, is fresh milk rather than butter, the output service arrangements are unsophisticated, as in LdLc Arsi. Stronger competition leads to more sophisticated arrangements with higher degrees of horizontal and vertical coordination, as observed in HdHc Nyandarua cluster. Here, improved service levels were reported in milk contracting, milk collection, value chain financing, feed supply, drug supply, and AI services, but less so in curative health care and hay supply. Use of own bulls rather than AI services is diminishing, but still common in all clusters, pointing to issues with the quality of AI services (proportion of farmers using bulls is lowest in HdHc Nyandarua, at around 40%).
Transformation of farmer organizations—The poor track record of cooperatives in both countries in terms of governance, efficiency, and sustainability makes many farmers wary of investing heavily in them; many regard cooperatives primarily as channels for public and NGO subsidies. The more entrepreneurial smallholders in Kenya circumvent these issues by forming less formal ‘self-help’ groups that aggregate milk and supply directly to processors. Cooperative companies, generally initiated with support from development agencies such as Heifer and partners, add a variety of services to these inputs, including access to credit lines (see
Table 4). In Ethiopia, such systems are much less developed.
3.2.3. Context Influence on Farm–Market Interaction (C)
This section describes identified upgrading dynamics stemming from interaction with the context. Institutional upgrading (or the absence of it) may have a synergistic, antagonistic, or inconsequential influence on technical and value chain upgrading. The main context factors identified in interviews are presented in
Table 6 and are described here following the institutional upgrading categories of
Table 2. A more elaborate description of policy dynamics is included in
Supplementary Material S3.
Impact of role division between private and public actors on service arrangements—Both countries have a turbulent history of public influence on agricultural service provision, contributing to large changes in Kenya and stagnation in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, public actors play an overriding role in access to inputs, services, and land. In Kenya, 25 years of significant policy changes have affected dairy in diverse ways: very significant cuts in public services in the early 1990s resulted in a collapse of the dairy sector, evidenced by the bankruptcy of many cooperatives and the state processor KCC (1999); market liberalization policy only gradually resulted in private service delivery [
48]; and the enabling environment now varies from county to county [
49].
In both countries, many interviewees complained about the inconsistency and inadequacy of public services for dairy. Minimization of dairy extension services in Kenya in the 1990s resulted in declining farmer skills and ultimately in declining yields. Public agencies have a (virtual) monopoly on vaccination for notifiable diseases in Kenya and on vaccination, AI, veterinary, and extension services in Ethiopia. The regulatory gaps for private AI, animal health services, and quality assurance of feed and the low policy priority for dairy compared to crops and meat received strong negative feedback. Relatively large positive impact was attributed to development projects.
In both countries, governments use subsidies to promote uptake of more market-oriented practices and to make services more accessible to farmers in remote locations and/or with fewer resources. In Kenya, interviewees mentioned many downsides to subsidized services. In Ethiopia, public monopolies on most inputs and services lead to an insensitivity toward demand, favoritism and lack of a level playing field for private providers. In both countries, subsidies seem to have created dependency on chemical fertilizers, leading to soil fertility issues.
Space for private sector service provision—The above indicates a number of bottlenecks for private service provision, even in Kenya where market liberalization is standing policy. In Ethiopia, regulatory space for private service providers primarily results in private agro-input shops (feed, drugs) and milk/butter trade; in Kenya, it results in agro-input shops and milk trade, as well as AI, veterinary, and advisory services. In both countries various business licenses are required, but monitoring of licenses is lax in Kenya.
Infrastructure development—Infrastructure, in terms of roads and utilities, was improving in all clusters. Market access for remote villages was more restricted by poor roads in Ethiopia than it was for remote villages in Kenya, as was least restricted in HdHc Nyandarua, where authorities have invested more in roads. While road upgrading in LdLc Arsi did improve access to markets, in LdHc East Shoa cluster it was mostly seen as taking away land from farming.
Financial services, factor access and information supply—In Ethiopia, poor access to finance is a significant bottleneck for upgrading of dairy farms and support services; farmers primarily rely on community savings and community credit institutions such as ‘ekub’. This is less of an issue in Kenya, where people who are connected to more formal value chains benefit from chain financing mechanisms, cooperative savings and credit institutions, and easier access to bank loans. Capping of interest rates at 14% per year for agricultural loans was applauded by Kenyan farmers. Access to labor is impeded by the image of dairy as involving much heavy and dirty labor. Access to information is increased by the presence of private advisory service providers next to public ones, and local language radio and TV programs about agriculture are highly appreciated by farmers.
Quality standards for products—In Kenya, demand for dairy products is strong and growing (annual consumption exceeds 110 L/capita [
50]). Consumer preference for raw milk gives the informal market a strong advantage. Its market share remains over 70%, despite many decades of formal chain development efforts and presence of product standards [
50,
51]. In Ethiopia, annual consumption is much lower, at around 20 L/capita, and the informal market trades over 98% of the volume [
50]; here, cooperatives and processors find it difficult to deal with seasonality of consumer demand resulting from long fasting seasons (on top of seasonality of production), although interviewees may have been using this as a metaphor for the difficult business climate.