Smallholder Farmers’ Perception and Practice of On-Farm Tree Species Diversification in Siaya County, Western Kenya
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Date
2019-02
Authors
Wanjira, Erick Otieno
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Biodiversity is an important component of agricultural landscape but has been under threat
of depletion recently. This is because of the escalating poverty and pursuance by farmers
to shield their households from hunger. Farmers often remove trees from croplands to create
more space for crop production through agricultural intensification instead of managing
them together with the annual food crops. The consequence of their action has been the
decline in soil fertility, tree diversity loss, and food insecurity at the household level. External
agents have been working closely with farmer groups on tree planting and agroforestry
programs to reverse the situation by building farmers’ capacity to improve farm
productivity and encourage them to adopt trees from livelihood diversification strategy
perspective. However, the impacts of their efforts in enhancing on-farm tree diversity is
yet to be evaluated. This study, therefore, sought to address this knowledge gap in Siaya
County through the following specific objectives: (1) to determine diversity of tree species
on croplands (2) to assess whether farmers’ perceptions on trees are associated with the
location where trees were planted on croplands; (3) to assess the influence of external
agents and farmer groups on-farm tree diversity; and (4) to determine main socio-economic
and farm characteristics influencing tree diversity on croplands. A questionnaire was administered
to 336 randomly selected respondents and complemented with 10 key informant
interviews to gather survey data. The data was analyzed using SPSS and BiodiversityR
software for descriptive statistics, tree diversity measurements, correlation and regression
analyses. The findings showed that a total of 73 tree species with an average richness of 4
species and abundance of 57 trees per acre of croplands were counted. Grevillea robusta
(28%), Eucalyptus spp (25%), and Markhamia lutea (18%) were the most abundant species
contributing 71% of all individual trees counted on croplands. Majority (74 %) of tree
species counted had <100 individuals and were mostly indigenous. External farm boundary
was the most dominant tree planting location accounting for 58% of all individual trees
counted on croplands. The study also found that perceptions on the effect of trees on
croplands significantly (p=0.000) influenced species richness in the study area; though it
had no significant association (χ2=0.361) with location where trees were planted or retained
on croplands at p <0.05. Both membership to a group and external agents were not significantly
influencing species richness and abundance per acre of cropland with exception of
external agent (p=0.00) that was found to significantly influence tree abundance per acre
of croplands at p<0.05. Farm size, age, main occupation for the households, purpose of
tree planting, access to seedlings, land use decision maker and group type had significant
influence on species richness on-farm tree diversity at p< 0.05. However, there was need
to build capacity of farmers to recognize tree diversity as an important component of
croplands and how to sustainably use them to generate wealth devoid of biodiversity loss.
Description
A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Environmental Science in the School of Environmental Studies of Kenyatta University, Kenya, February, 2019