The Infection and Treatment Method (ITM)

The Infection and Treatment Method (ITM)

The Infection and Treatment Method (ITM) is considered to be a safer and effective method of controlling East Coast fever (ECF). However, since its commercialization in Kenya, demand for ITM among men and women smallholder cattle keepers remains unclear. This study applies a modern evaluation technique: the Average Treatment Effect (ATE) adoption framework to a cross-sectional data from 150 female-headed (FHHs) and 298 male-headed (MHHs) households to estimate the patterns of diffusion and adoption of ITM and its determinants. Results revealed that inadequate awareness restricted ITM uptake to 41 per cent and 19 per cent for the case of MHHs and FHHs, respectively. According to the ATE projections, ITM uptake could be 62 per cent for MHHs and 31 per cent for FHHs if the awareness constraint was addressed. This resulted in adoption gaps of 20.5 per cent and 12 per cent among MHHs and FHHs, respectively. In both MHHs and FHHs, ITM was likely to be adopted by the household head who were more educated, had bigger cattle herd size, were active members of social groups, and those who had access to credit and extension services. In FHHs, size of land, economically active household labour force and age of the household head played a significant role in ITM uptake. The findings show promise for further uptake and scaling of ITM if proper interventions are put in place to address awareness and other factors affecting adoption.