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The poor integration of pastoral households into milk markets has been attributed to several aspects, including the mobile nature of pastoralists and seasonal fluctuations in milk volumes. Pastoralists also keep their cattle as a store of wealth, meaning they are keener to increase livestock numbers than their productivity. These aspects make it risky for traders to source milk from pastoral households because of the high transaction costs and the uncertainty of milk prices and volumes. This study evaluates the practice of sourcing milk and the innovative strategies used by several traders to ensure that pastoral households are integrated into milk markets. Methodologically, we use the practice approach, where practices are meaning-making and order-producing activities that result in an institutionalised way of doing. The results indicate that previous market engagement for pastoralists took place in a rigid, predetermined context that failed to account for pastoralists' varying production practices. Our analysis shows how the skilful performance of traders and motorbike milk aggregators has aligned with the logic and interests of pastoralists. However, this alignment capacity can only be realised under specific conditions, which involve aligning with local production systems, coordinating with intermediaries, and having a flexible approach to marketing prices and buyers across seasons. This study highlights that economic organisation emerges from everyday action and problem-solving and is not only an outcome of an intentional system design. In doing so, this study contributes to more realistic needs-driven business intervention strategies that are beneficial in achieving inclusive rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholder livestock production systems are targeted for climate change mitigation via Low-Emission Development Strategies (LEDS). LEDS promote the adoption of so-called best agricultural practices for mitigation gains, while also expecting to contribute to socio-economic development. However, the assumed alignment between LEDS and varied realities of smallholder farmers is not self-evident. This study argues for a shift away from problematizing the adoption of ideal-type and uniform LED-practices (or a "fix") to fitting LEDS to diverse smallholder priorities and capabilities embedded in specific regional histories and conditions. To make this shift, we assess the plausibility of fit of LED-practices into diverse smallholder realities in Kenya's dairy sector. A mixed-methods approach exposes variation in the use of LED-practices in diverse dairy practices at household and regional levels. We characterize smallholder heterogeneity by distinguishing six clusters through a multivariate analysis of data from 1009 households in three regions of Kenya, and present patterns in uptake and intensity of the use of LED-practices for each household type. Next, the combination of quantitative and qualitative data shows variation in uptake of LED-practices at the level of the three counties, which suggests the importance of regional conditions in shaping the uptake of LED-practices and places the adoption focus beyond household-level decision-making. Subsequently, we identify starting points for LEDS design attuned to variation in smallholder dairy realities at multiple levels, where we consider scale at the start, and shift attention from the adoption of fixes to the creation of spaces conducive to "fitting" LED-practices into diverse realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]