THE EFFICACY OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING STRATEGIES USED AT EGERTON UNIVERSITY AS PERCEIVED BY LIVESTOCK VALUE CHAIN ACTORS

Abstract

Agricultural universities invest substantial resources in postgraduate research that generate knowledge products with the aim of providing solutions to known practical constraints impeding productivity in the livestock value chain, Enhanced utilization of the knowledge products by the target beneficiary actors in the livestock chain has however remained a challenge. Using a case study of Egerton University, this study aimed to determine the strategies most frequently used to share the generated knowledge products, and to find out their preferences of the knowledge sharing strategies in use. The actors’ perception of the relevance and accessibility of the knowledge products generated at the University was also examined. The study was conducted through desktop study which reviewed the Masters and Doctorate Theses that targeted livestock value chain actors generated between January 2005 and December2011. Asurvey was conducted using structured questionnaires to collect data from a sample size of 198 actors. The findings indicated that the knowledge products were 25 to 29 times more likely (P<0.001) to be disseminated through the library than any other sharing strategy examined. The sampled actors in livestock value chain perceived media briefs to be the most accessible with a mean of 4.26. The Masters Theses were perceived as more relevant to their needs with a mean of 4.07. The findings indicate that the livestock value chain actors were not fully utilizing the knowledge sharing strategies used to reach them.  The study concluded that the defined primary beneficiaries of knowledge products from the university were not effectively reached.