Agricultural productivity, environmental conserv ation and poverty: The case of Kenya

Abstract

This study examines the link between environmental conservation practices and agricultural productivity in a fragile ecological environment in Kajiado district, Kenya. The study was carried out against the background of growing concern that declining agricultural productivity and increasing poverty are a cause as well as a consequence of environmental degradation. The study sought to explore mechanisms for escaping from a poverty trap where poverty leads to increased resource degradation, which in turn leads to low productivity and to more poverty. The study uses panel data to examine the nexus between environmental capital, farm productivity and profitability for the period 1998-2000. Both descriptive and econometric procedures are employed to that end. Descriptive statistics indicate that 69% of the respondents held land under private property, while the rest farmed crops and grazed livestock under common property regimes. About 43% of farmers engaged in at least one environmental conservation practice, while 59% of all herders migrated both in search of pasture and water, and to give overgrazed pastures time to recover. The data further shows that land conservation is more likely under private property than under communal tenure systems. Property rights, availability of labour, livestock ownership, and perceptions concerning the value of environmental conservation are the most important determinants of adoption of land and environmental conservation practices. All forms of environmental conservation practices exert positive impacts on farm productivity. In addition, property rights, land ownership, technology, and availability of biomass at the village level are important determinants of productivity per acre. Our simulation results confirm the importance of well-specified property rights, environmental conservation and increased biomass on productivity. Moreover, favourable policy changes in these variables reduce poverty. This study shows that environmental conservation practices reduce poverty through increased agricultural production. Provision of incentives for environmental conservation is the first step towards poverty reduction in the district. In contrast to earlier studies, our results suggest the need to speed up privatization of group land in order to encourage adoption of environmental conservation and increase farm productivity and household welfare. Other important policy implications include making labour markets more competitive, educating producers on the benefits of environmental conservation and about the need to conserve biomass.