The Role of Agro-Veterinary Shops in Animal Health Services, Information and Technology Delivery in Kenya

With the withdrawal of animal health services by the government of Kenya, 'private' delivery has become increasingly important, especially in urban and per-urban settings. Rural agri- business shops ('dukas') are situated everywhere in the country and areas devoid of veterinarians due to poor establishment of private practice as in the ASALs, they have mushroomed to address the delivery vacuum. Four participatory approaches were used in a study to gauge the perceptions of stakeholders on the role of 'dukas' in delivery of animal health services, technologies and information. Rapid rural appraisals were carried out in three representative districts of Kenya to obtain perceptions in farmers' group settings. Semi-structured interviews of key informants endeavoured to tease out opinions of the professionals on the service and information delivery mode they considered to be most effective and sustainable. Shop exit surveys targeting individual consumers sought to assess what livestock keepers had to say on a one to one basis regarding the agro-veterinary shops. Two consensus-building workshop meetings for stakeholders were held to help crystallise recommendations and develop guidelines and support mechanisms for future duka involvements in AHSD. In this paper, the main stakeholders' perspectives and highlights from stakeholders' consensus-building workshops are also presented. In conclusion the role of the dukas is discussed impartially