Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Agricultural Land Management in Kenya

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dc.contributor.authorWaswa, F.
dc.date.accessioned2015-05-05T12:22:30Z
dc.date.available2015-05-05T12:22:30Z
dc.date.issued2006
dc.descriptionBook Chapteren_US
dc.description.abstractDespite technological advances in land management (i.e. use, care and improvement) across the world, land degradation not only persists, but also continues to escalate, thus threatening the livelihood of many agriculturally dependent communities. Projections of world food situation into 2020for instance singles out potential scarcity of maize - an important cereal in Kenya, whose demand will have to be met by a 40% increase in grain production, however on a steadily deteriorating land resource (Pinstrup-Andersen et al., 1999). Estimates from the Global Assessment of Soil Degradation (GLASOD) indicate that degradation of crop land and pasture land is most extensive in Africa, affecting 65% and 31%of the two systems respectively (Scherr and Yadav, 1996). In Kenya, 73% of land degradation is attributed to overgrazing and arable agriculture, while conversion of arid and semi-arid lands to other uses accounts for some 14% of land degradation (Mutiso, 1991). With increasing population pressure, only little evidence exists to indicate that this condition may after all not be disadvantageous as conventionally understood (Tiffen et al., 1994). In the past, soil erosion and subsequent fertility decline, diminution of agricultural productivity and decline in environmental quality were normally attributed to the effect of natural phenomena like climate. Emphasis on the attainment of optimum resource management and productivity was thus put on biophysical factors, which however was met with little success as earlier mentioned. This indicated that other factors hitherto ignored were equally critical. Therefore, since the 1980s, there has been growing recognition that persistent land degradation results from the failures on the part of conventional research, policy and development approaches to recognise the importance of the participation of the land users and the total human dimension at all levels of decision making in resource management. Further, programmes with spontaneous support of the target group stood a better chance of success, especially when such interventions were accompanied with tangible short-term benefits (FAO, 1995; Mcclelland, 1998;Steiner, 1998). However, a considerable gap still exists between conceptual acceptance and real implementation on the ground. Widespread failure on the part of the target groups to adopt what would be appropriate technologies (Fujisaka, 1994, Ashby et al., 1996; Thomas, 1996) and tendencies of II experts" to address symptoms rather than root causes and hence persistence of land degradation in many tropical agro-ecosystems attests to thisen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThe Japan Society for the promotion of Science in collaboration with Kenyatta Universityen_US
dc.identifier.isbn9966-776-02-8
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/12570
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherSchool of Environmental Studies and Human Sciences, Kenyatta Universityen_US
dc.titleOpportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Agricultural Land Management in Kenyaen_US
dc.title.alternativeEnvironment and Sustainable Development A Guide for Tertiary Education in Kenya Volume I
dc.typeBook chapteren_US
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