Nexus between Socioeconomic Factors, Indigenous Chicken Productivity, and Community-defined Livelihood Outcomes among Rural Communities in Kericho County, Kenya

Rural poultry rearing is common worldwide, particularly in developing countries, where indigenous chicken (IC) dominates and serves as a vital asset for resource-poor households. Despite their importance, backyard chickens face productivity challenges such as inconsistent nutrition, poor health management, and fluctuating environmental conditions. While numerous studies address these technical challenges, socioeconomic contexts are often overlooked. This study investigated the nexus between socioeconomic factors, IC productivity, and community-defined livelihood outcomes among rural communities in Kericho County, Kenya. Grounded in contextualism, the study pursued three objectives: (1) examine socioeconomic determinants of IC productivity, (2) analyze the relationship between IC productivity and community-defined livelihood outcomes, using a participatory approach, and (3) explore the nexus between socioeconomic factors, IC productivity, and livelihood outcomes. A community-based participatory action research framework was employed, combining qualitative data from focus group discussions and quantitative data from a cross-sectional survey. Sample size was determined by Yamane’s formula and purposive and stratified random sampling techniques were used to select participants. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential methods; SPSS version 27 aided quantitative analysis. Findings indicated that IC productivity is influenced by farmers’ socioeconomic factors; access to information, knowledge-seeking behaviour, social networking, enterprise diversity, household size, flock size, and age. Productivity measures; egg production and chick survival rates, varied significantly across livelihood outcome categories based on Welch ANOVA; F (3, 38.31) = 15.68, p < .001, ƞ2 = .124 and F (3, 36.545) = 34.875, p < .001, ƞ2 = .197 respectively, but self-reported profitability did not (p > .05). Challenges revolved around economic powerlessness and weak information-seeking behaviour. The study concludes that socioeconomic attributes, including information-seeking and social networking, are integral to the productivity of Indigenous chickens and community-defined livelihood outcomes. It recommends that stakeholders and policy-makers support integrating farmer groups into broader networks to foster collaboration and improve productivity.