The Promotion of Sustainable Beef Production through Development of Field to Fork Value Chain Approach in Kenya: End of Project Evaluation Report

Overview

This end-of-project evaluation assessed a Solidaridad project implemented from January 2014 to December 2015 in Loita Ward, Narok County, with a budget of EUR 1,150,160. Partners included Nyongara Slaughter House, Auslynn Agencies, Onkol Limited, the Departments of Veterinary Services and Livestock Production, Ramat farmers' association and Maasai Fed Plains Beef CBO. The project aimed to create sustainable vertical integration from producers through meat processing to wholesale and retail markets, and to improve market access and drought resilience for 6,000 pastoralists. The evaluation assessed relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and scalability. It also benchmarked the project against the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) principles.

Key findings

• An estimated 6,500 households and more than 65,000 livestock benefited from the pasture and water resource management strategies, including rehabilitation of dams and fodder establishment and conservation.
• 92 percent of respondents had been trained on beef production in the last 12 months, and 96 percent were satisfied with the training. Trainers of trainers were trained but had not started training farmers because of lack of facilitation.
• Groups working with project partners grew from about 20 at the start to more than 100, which increased the demand for capacity building beyond the available trainers.
• Marketing remained weak: 93 percent of respondents marketed livestock individually and 7 percent collectively, 50.7 percent travel more than 15 km to market, and 86 percent walk their animals there. Lack of transport (38.3 percent) was the main marketing challenge.
• The market link to Nyongara slaughterhouse was seen as unreliable because purchases were inconsistent. The planned modernisation of the Naivasha slaughterhouse did not happen, but hygiene upgrades and a five-year strategic plan were completed at Nyongara with Auslynn Agencies.
• The project distributed 5 Sahiwal bulls, 20 rams and 20 bucks to groups for breeding, and the first calves were born in April 2016. The evaluators judged these numbers low relative to the expected impact and observed competition between groups over the breeding animals.
• 82 percent of respondents had access to veterinary services, and project-supported agrovet (dawa) shops brought inputs closer at lower cost. No specific research on investment opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions was carried out.

In figures

Recommendations

• Identify additional buyers and partners for farmers' cattle, since Nyongara slaughterhouse lacks capacity, and consider a local slaughterhouse to reduce cost and distance.
• Establish more agrovets (farmers suggested one per location) and monitor them to prevent mismanagement.
• Increase the number of veterinary technicians working with farmers and make mandatory vaccination available at a subsidised rate.
• Find ways to facilitate trained community trainers to reach farmers, and upgrade the skills of existing technicians so training can be commercialised.
• Construct more dams to provide water for animals in dry seasons.
• Develop a coherent, decentralised community breeding programme with additional bulls, bucks and rams so that the whole ward can benefit.
• Expand beekeeping in conserved areas with more hives and honey processing equipment to make it a commercial business.

Lessons learned

• Organising structures that involve all implementing partners improves participation by beneficiaries and government officers, effective implementation and sustainability.
• New institutions such as pasture management groups need to be harmonised with existing traditional structures, including on gender composition, so they do not undermine them.
• Frequent risks and uncertainties in the area mean flexibility is needed in both planning and implementation.
• Partnerships should be negotiated in advance to avoid the delays and activity changes seen at project start.
• Without a baseline survey at the start, it was difficult to compare results.

Methodology

Mixed-methods evaluation conducted between 3 March and 15 April 2016 in sub-locations of Loita Ward. Methods were a household questionnaire with 298 beneficiaries, 12 focus group discussions, 26 key informant interviews and direct observation, plus a review of project documents. Data were entered and analysed descriptively in SPSS, with proxy baseline information used where no baseline existed.

Limitations

• No baseline survey was conducted at project start, so proxy baseline information was used where available.
• Older people (56 years and above) were under-represented, because mainly people aged 21-35 were available for interviews.