Homogeneous Land-Use Sequences in Heterogeneous Small-Scale Systems of Central Kenya: Land-Use Categorization for Enhanced Greenhouse Gas Emission Estimation
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Date
2022
Authors
Mairura, Franklin S.
Musafiri, Collins M.
Kiboi, Milka N.
Macharia, Joseph M.
Ng’etich, Onesmus K.
Shisanya, Chris A.
Okeyo, Jeremiah M.
Okwuosa, Elizabeth A.
Ngetich, Felix K.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
The current understanding of the link between land management practices and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions
is limited in the small-scale farm sector of sub-Sahara regions due to insufficient or fragmented land-use data.
Land-use categories recognized in the national GHG inventories in Kenya are coarse. Therefore, they do not
adequately account for the diversity in small-scale land uses. Characterization of land-use and knowledge of key
drivers of land-use change is necessary to improve national GHG inventories in the SSA (Sub-Sahara Africa)
region. We implemented a cross-sectional survey to characterize land-use and determine factors which influenced
changes in land use within small-scale farms of Tharaka-Nithi County, Kenya. We sampled 300 farmers
using multistage sampling and collected crop sequence recall data at plot level for three years (seven seasons).
We grouped crop sequences into clusters using the ‘TraMineR’ R package. We derived four clusters including
banana, tea, and declining fallows (cluster 1, 19.2% of plots), cereal-legume systems (cluster 2, 55.1%), fodder
(cluster 3, 11.7%) and coffee (cluster 4, 14.0%). We observed higher N application rates in perennial cropping
systems, than in annual crops, including cereal-legume systems. We observed that farmers in higher potential
agro-ecological zones, male-managed farms, with higher per capita land area, higher remittances and higher
total house-hold incomes, were associated with a higher propensity to adjust crop enterprises, leading to more
unstable land-use sequences. Contrariwise, farmers with higher education, credit access, secure land tenure,
increasing slope, good soil fertility, and longer farming experiences recorded a lower propensity to adjust their
land uses, resulting in more stable crop sequences. Farmer socio-demographic characteristics influenced land-use
change, which is directly linked with soil GHG emissions. Our findings propose the adoption of Tier II GHG
quantification approaches which disaggregate between annual and perennial crop enterprises. GHG emissions
are likely to be more generalizable in stable perennial crop systems than annual systems. Thus, better disaggregation
of GHG sampling in annual crop systems is needed due to high diversity in crop and soil fertility
management, and the dynamic nature of C and N cycling in these systems.
Description
Article
Keywords
Climate change, Crop sequence, Fertilizer Manure, Farm diversity, TraMineR package
Citation
Mairura, F. S., Musafiri, C. M., Kiboi, M. N., Macharia, J. M., Ng'etich, O. K., Shisanya, C. A., ... & Ngetich, F. K. (2022). Homogeneous land-use sequences in heterogeneous small-scale systems of Central Kenya: Land-use categorization for enhanced greenhouse gas emission estimation. Ecological Indicators, 136, 108677.