Adoption of on-farm feed safety practices among livestock farmers: Evidence from Saudi Arabia

Compliance with feed safety standards and practices on the farm promotes sustainable livestock production and can positively affect the environment and human health. This study aims to examine farmers' on-farm adoption of feed safety practices and determine the differences in adoption according to the socio-economic characteristics of farmers. An online survey was conducted to collect the study data. The study participants consisted of 442 livestock farmers in Riyadh region, Saudi Arabia. The study findings revealed that farmers highly adopted categories of feed purchasing (77.9 %) and feed mixing and distribution (75.05 %), whereas they were considered as a moderate level adoption regarding feed storing (70.9 %). The cluster analysis results showed two main patterns of adoption- "high adopters" and "moderate adopters"-based on the average level of adoption for 25 feed safety practices examined. The cluster of "high adopters" accounted for 59.9 % of the sample and had higher average adoption in all practices examined. The findings revealed that there are significant differences between the two segments of farmers, corresponding to gender, membership in livestock association, extension contact, raising sheep, and feeding system. This study proposes the regular monitoring of farms to ensure strict adherence to feed safety regulations, with the implementation of awareness and capacity development initiatives pertaining to feed safety concerns.