This study examines the characteristics of small scale dairy farmers practicing
zero-grazing (stall-feeding) within the city Nairobi and the immediate surrounding areas in Kiambu district. The levels of dairy land use intensifications are compared among the urban, peri-urban and rural areas and the results are discussed for land use theory, policy and future research and development. Two conceptual frameworks on coupled humanenvironment land use systems and the urban-rural gradient guided the study. Data were collected from a stratified random sample of 327 dairy farmers between 2006 and 2007.
Semi-structured questionnaire provided info1mation on household and dairy farm characteristics. Systematic methods including factor analysis, cluster analysis and oneway analysis of variance were utilized to enhance the reliability of the findings. More than 43% of the farmers indicated that dairy farming was the most important source of income and some have been practicing it for the last 50 years. When asked about the future plans for their dairy farming, less than 2% of all the farmers expected to discontinue. Results of analysis showed that there are statistically significant differences in the levels of dairy land use intensification between the urban and rural farmers.
Farmers in the urban areas kept more heads of dairy cattle per unit area of land and also obtained higher milk yields per cow each day compared to rural farmers. However, there were no significant differences between the peri-urban and urban or rural farmers. The findings suggests that the new Nairobi metropolitan development strategy should consider smallholder dairy farming in projects aimed at reducing urban poverty, food insecurity and waste management.