| dc.description.abstract | Camels contribute to the diet of pastoralists by producing food, especially milk, which is
considered naturally imperfect but nearly complete. However, the amount of camel milk
produced in Mandera County has decreased over time, and to make matters worse, only
about 9% of that milk is traded, with most of it being sold at fairly low prices locally and
only about 4% being processed. This served as the basis for this study to establish
perceived effects of some selected factors on productivity of camels in Mandera County.
Particularly, the study sought to establish whether and how camel breeds, animal care,
road conditions and government extension services affected camel productivity in
Mandera County. The study was guided by the Basic Needs Theory, Resilience and Food
Production Theory and Livelihood Diversification Theory. The study adopted descriptive
survey research design. The target population comprised 43,691 camel keeping
households in Mandera County from which a sample of 396 households was established
through Slovin Formula. However, since only three of the six sub counties in the county
were purposefully selected for the study, the sample size was reduced to 300 respondents,
one per household. The distribution of the questionnaires was guided by the perceived
level of engagement of respondents in camel rearing. Further, to corroborate the
responses from camel dealers on the variables of study, qualitative studies were carried
out through interview schedules from government officers in animal production and
veterinary care that normally assisted camel dealers. Data was collected through drop and
pick and analyzed by use of SPSS version 26. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire
constructs was confirmed before its use. Tests for normality, autocorrelation and absence
of multicollinearity were conducted before multivariate regression analysis. A reliability
coefficient of Cronbach alpha of over 0.7 was returned for all constructs of the
independent variables. Descriptive statistics were used to explain the findings while
information from government officers was analyzed qualitatively through in-depth and
contextual insights. The study achieved a response rate of 74.3 percent. All the key
variables tested against camel productivity returned mean scores above 3.5 with a
standard deviation ranging from 0.08 to 1.08. These data implied that the respondents
agreed with most of the statements on the 5-point Likert type scale. The low standard
deviations below 2 meant low variability in the responses. Correlation analysis revealed
that camel breed, animal care, road conditions and government extension services were
positively and significantly correlated to camel productivity. Regression analysis results
indicated that the factors under study explained 62.9% of the variation in camel
productivity in Mandera County with effects of camel breeds being statistically
significant (β=0.201; p=0.032) as were effects of animal care (β=0.370, p=0.005) and
those of road conditions (β=0.305; p=0.000) and government extension services
(β=0.413; p=0.000). The ANOVA results confirmed that the model was significant in
predicting camel productivity. It was concluded that all the independent variables singly
and collectively influenced camel productivity which was corroborated by government
officers. It was recommended that government at national and county levels invest in
improved camel breeds and availability of adequate breeding bulls, provide more animal
care services and an enabling environment for private sector to provide other services
through road access and cold storage for camel milk and meat among other interventions.
Future research should consider other aspects of camel productivity, diseases, nutrition,
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marketing, value addition and even promotion of trade. Also, it would be useful to carry
out the same type of research in other counties and compare results | en_US |
