Carbon projects, cooperative membership and technical efficiency of smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya

The development and implementation of smallholder agricultural carbon projects offer opportunities for sustainable dairy production. Understanding the role of institutions such as cooperatives and the efficient use of resources by farmers in carbon projects is crucial to achieving sustainable agriculture and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The main objective of this study is to explore the role that cooperatives can play in agricultural carbon projects and to understand the efficient use of resources by participating farmers, using a pioneering project as a case study. A mixed methods approach was used. Ten focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted in addition to a household survey with 153 participants. A participatory and visual mapping tool (Net-Map) was used to understand the interaction between cooperatives and other actors including project developers in the project. Stochastic frontier and endogenous switching regression models were used to analyse the impact of cooperative membership on technical efficiency. The results show that dairy cooperatives promote the adoption of sustainable practices and support carbon monitoring and reporting. While cooperative membership is positively related to technical efficiency, non-members in our study had slightly higher technical efficiency. This finding suggests the need for cooperatives to go beyond promoting environmentally sustainable practices to enhancing farmers efficient use of input. The results also reveal information asymmetries in voluntary carbon markets which limits the capacity of cooperatives to promote sustainable agriculture. The study highlights the important role of cooperatives in promoting sustainable dairy farming in the face of climate change. It serves as a guide not only for carbon project managers, but also for other development project developers to strengthen the participation of cooperatives in climate change mitigation and sustainable agriculture. • Dairy cooperatives promote the adoption of sustainable practices. • Cooperative membership is positively related to technical efficiency. • Yet, information asymmetry on voluntary carbon market limits their full potential. • Cooperatives need to be strengthened to enhance their important role in achieving sustainable agriculture.