Land Use Policy in Relation to Social Forestry in Kenya

Abstract

This report seeks to provide a better understanding of the economic framework of smallholder agriculture in Kenya, particularly in relation to tree growing management and practices. Although much of the report focuses on tree growing activities in the Murang'a District, a high potential agricultural zone in the Central Province of Kenya, many of the observations and conclusions are relevant to other parts of the country. Both casual observation and land use inventories provide strong evidence that trees have an important role as one of many smallholder land use options in many high potential agricultural zones in Kenya. In some cases, farmers grow trees to meet the demand for construction poles, charcoal and fuelwood and in response to other market forces. Trees are also cultivated to demarcate boundaries or to shade other crops such as tea or coffee. Still, there remains the question of why farmers maintain trees on land that could be used for the cultivation of other crops which could potentially generate a substantially higher income. Central to this discussion of tree planting in Kenya is the interlinkage of issues such as land tenure, capital accumulation and labour use. Several of the most common tree cultivation and management practices are the long-term outcome of these closely related issues. Others have been adopted either as a result of relatively recent interventions or are due to the evolution of traditional tree management practices. Chapter 1 explores the current state of knowledge about the extent of tree growing in high potential areas of Kenya.