Hoffmann, Vivian

Brown, Lahra Harcourt

Alonso, Silva

Lindahl, Johanna

Varnell, Hannah

Grace, Delia

The purpose of this research note is to describe relevant policies and standards, and to summarise recent research and literature to gain insight into compliance with dairy standards in Kenya. We highlight key points of the main policies pertaining to the sale of dairy products, and present unpublished findings from three recent studies conducted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and partners and the results of a rapid literature review.

Regulatory compliance in the Kenyan dairy sector: Awareness and compliance among farmers and vendors

Li, Yanan

Liu, Yanyan

Zhang, Jian

In this paper, we examine antibiotic use in the Chinese hog farming sector. China warrants special atten-tion for several reasons. First, China is both the largest producer and the largest consumer of antibiotics in the world (Zhu et al. 2013). Second, it leads the world in use of antimicrobial drugs in livestock (Van Boeckel et al. 2015). Third, several studies have shown higher levels of antibiotic resistance in China than in other countries (Zhang et al. 2006; Hu et al. 2014; Hvistendahl 2012). Finally, the combination of high rates of antibiotic use and weak regulatory enforcement make China an ideal setting in which to examine the drivers of antimicrobial use in livestock production.

Antimicrobial use and farm size in China’s Shandong province

Moser, Christine

Herrman, Timothy

This paper characterizes consumer demand for food safety and the dynamic impact of a social marketing campaign to promote a tested, third party verified maize flour in Kenya, where dietary exposure to the fungal toxin aflatoxin is a major public health concern. Consumption of high levels of aflatoxin can be fatal, but this is relatively rare. Of greater concern is chronic exposure, which has been linked in numerous studies to liver cancer and may also contribute to child stunting. A significant proportion of the maize consumed in Kenya, where it is the primary dietary staple, fails to meet regulatory standards. One study reported widely in the Kenyan press found that 65% of maize samples collected from 20 major millers did not meet the national standard (Gathura, 2011) and another based on over 900 samples collected from retailers found that 26% of branded maize flour was above this standard (Hoffmann and Moser, 2017).

Demand for aflatoxin-safe maize in Kenya: Dynamic response to price and advertising

Ridolfi, Carlotta

Baral, Siddhartha

This report collates and contextualizes available evidence on post-harvest losses (PHL) in horticultural crops in Kenya. We begin by outlining the extent of PHL in horticultural crops and its repercussions in the context of food security and poverty reduction. We then describe the growing importance of the horticulture sector in Kenya and its growth potential, especially in terms of exports. Following this discussion, we detail PHL for two important horticultural crops, mangoes and tomatoes, for which Kenya-specific evidence is available. We discuss ways to mitigate PHL from three angles: technological, economic or behavioral, and institutional. Documenting cost-effective technological interventions to mitigate PHL, we catalogue ways to tackle PHL at the individual farmer level. We then highlight behavioral bottlenecks to adoption of such technologies and the need to design interventions in ways that address these. Finally, we discuss structural and institutional changes that would need to accompany individual-level interventions to bring about significant reductions in PHL.

Post-harvest losses in fruits and vegetables: The Kenyan context

Hoffmann, Vivian

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