Description
Indigenous innovations can aid developing nations embark on a cumulative path of positive growth by providing great opportunities to stimulate economic growth leveragedon indigenous knowledge, cultural practices and resources residing within native communities. Mursikis milk preservation traditional technology among Kalenjin community in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya.This study therefore aimed at investigating on entrepreneurial viability Mursik so as to propose a framework model for its commercialization that can be generalized to other related indigenous innovations that abound in diverse communities in Kenya. Specifically, the study determined supply side characteristics, demand side characteristics, innovation’s characteristics, and moderating effect of innovation promoters. Data was obtained usingsemi-structured questionnaires administered on a snow-balled sample of size of 59 accessed enterprises. However, only 35 of those enterprises completed the data collection adequately for analysis. The findings obtained indicated that whereas there was huge supply of milk in the proximal catchment area the supply was not consistent and suppliers preferred delivering it to large milk processors who had not yet adopted Mursik as part of their line of products. The innovation itself strongly possessed necessary characteristics for potential for massive adoption. It was also found to elicit a lot of interest with new users who were willing to try it. However, the knowledge and technology transfer capacity was very constraining. The traditional production process was also inevitably slow and would not be consistent with rapid production process associated with most milk products in fast moving consumer goods. The researcher therefore recommends an experimental study on technology improvement to enable rapid production and yet maintain quality and value attributed to the original Mursik product, and also determination of means of value packaging, promotion and distribution beyond the traditional users of the product.
Keywords
: indigenous innovations, entrepreneurship, Mursik, milk products
