Determinants of Market Channel Selection and Intensity of Participation Among Smallholder Chicken Farmers in Machakos County, Kenya

Chicken contributes to human protein and micronutrient intake, food security, and people’s livelihoods, leading to increasing demand worldwide. However, smallholder farmers often face challenges in choosing optimal markets to sell their chickens, contributing to inefficiencies in market participation and potentially leading to low income. This study examined the determinants of market channel choice and participation intensity among smallholder chicken farming households in Machakos County, Kenya. A multistage sampling technique was used to obtain primary data from 582 chicken farming households. The descriptive statistics showed the choice of village market hotels and restaurants market channel generated the highest returns, although most farmers relied on brokers and farm-gate consumer market channels. The selection equation model results of the multinomial endogenous treatment effect model revealed that age (dy/dx = -0.087, p < 0.01, and dy/dx = 0.108, p < 0.05), education (dy/dx = 0.517, p < 0.01), marketing experience (dy/dx = -0.050, p < 0.05, and dy/dx = 0.158, p < 0.01), flock size, (dy/dx = 0.182, p < 0.05, and dy/dx = 0.365, p < 0.01), hybrid chicken rearing (dy/dx = 0.572, p < 0.01, and dy/dx = 0.684, p < 0.01), group membership (dy/dx = 0.203, p < 0.01, and dy/dx = 0.379, p < 0.05) and use of smartphone (dy/dx = 0.124, p < 0.01, and 0.089, p < 0.05) positively influenced the choice of market channels respectively. The outcome model results showed that household size (β = 5.391, p < 0.05), education (β = 6.105, p < 0.01), marketing experience (β = 10.13, p < 0.05, and β = 84.61, p < 0.05), rearing hybrid chickens (β = 9.56, p < 0.05, and β = 120.62, p < 0.05), group membership (β = 15.15, p < 0.01, and β = 172.25, p < 0.05), selling price (β = 8.26, p < 0.01, and β = 70.28, p < 0.01) and use of radio (β = 4.16, p < 0.05) positively affected the quantity of chicken supplied and net income, respectively, while transport costs (β = -2.61, p < 0.05) had a negative effect. The study recommends the need to promote hybrid chicken farming and extension services targeting farmers in groups while integrating digital tools into extension systems to improve access to timely market information and link farmers to profitable markets.