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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Trees on farms in Kenya
1.2 Scope of this study

1.1 Trees on farms in Kenya

Simple observation in many high potential agricultural areas of Kenya would inform the casual observer that trees - protected, cultivated and managed - have assumed an important place as one of many smallholder land use options. The observation poses some interesting problems for our conventional view of peasant agriculture. It is not as if farmers have nothing else to do with their land. Population pressures in many areas of Kenya have become extreme. It is in precisely these areas - where pressures on agricultural land are greatest - that the proportionate area of land used for growing trees increases so substantially. In the face of these types of pressures, and because cash returns for trees are relatively low, there must be strong reasons why farmers grow trees rather than other potentially more profitable crops.

The rural afforestation efforts of the government, aid agencies and local organizations in Kenya have seldom taken account of the extent of existing tree growing activities. Even when they have, project design and implementation have been hampered by a lack of information about why farmers have undertaken these types of activities on their own. In particular, the relationships between land use, capital, labour, and land ownership with respect to tree growing are not well-understood.

The Extent of Tree Growing Activities

Important gains in improving our understanding about the role of trees on farms in Kenya have been made with the recent collection of inventory information about trees in smallholder agriculture. These land use studies, typically of areas with high population densities and heavy intensities of agricultural land use, have suggested that planted and managed trees and shrubs usually cover between 5 and 10 percent of the area of agricultural land. While arid and semi-arid lands are increasingly important as areas of new settlement, they pose special problems for tree growing which are beyond the scope of this case study. On average, over 20 percent of the total high potential agricultural land area has been used for growing trees, or has otherwise been left under natural woody cover.

Although planted tree species are predominantly introduced varieties, such as Grevillea robusta, Eucalyptus sp. or Acacia mearnsii, a number of indigenous species such as Markhamia sp. Croton sp., and Sesbania sesban also feature in farmers' range of choices. The dominant species vary from district to district in Kenya. For example, in Kakamega District, in Western Kenya bordering Lake Victoria (see Fig 1), woodlots are almost always dominated by Eucalvptus saligna while in Murang'a District in Central Kenya, they are dominated by Acacia mearnsii. These contiguous, non-linear, and usually monospecific tree management units may be extremely small, with 10 trees or so, but are more commonly around 200 m² in area. Hedges -contiguous, linear, and also usually monospecific tree management units - are frequently composed of Cupressus lusitanica. They are usually planted in the first instance, but as they grow to maturity, may come to include other species established as a result of natural regeneration. In some areas, although there is little completely untouched woodland remaining, there are large areas of natural vegetation which have been highly modified, for instance in bush/fallow systems (Bradley and Kuyper 1985).

Figure 1.1 Administrative divisions and the location of the study area in Kenya

The importance of tree cultivation and management as part of the farming system becomes somewhat clearer when other agricultural land uses are considered. Table 1.1 and Figure 1.2 summarize the results of a land use inventory for Murang'a District which shows the extent of tree protection, cultivation, and management compared land uses. Although the predominance of particular crops in this district is mostly limited by the agroclimate, the predominance of trees does not seem to be so constrained. While smallholder coffee, for instance, accounts for anywhere between 0.1 and 13 percent of the land area depending on the agro-ecological zone, woody cover (planted trees, woodlands, bushland and so on) accounts for at least 15 percent and as much as 35 percent of the total agricultural land area across all zones.

TABLE 1: LAND USES IN MURANG'A DISTRICT IN 1988

Some features of land use described in Table 1.1 challenge accepted ideas. While it is often argued that population growth and agricultural intensification are incompatible with the conservation and management of tree cover, the Kenya experience suggests that this is not always the case. Even in the most heavily populated areas, trees continue to be an important feature of land use. Also interesting is the gradual transition in the type of woody biomass which predominates as population pressures increase. Natural forest and bushland is cleared as agricultural development is intensified, but replanting follows, apparently using trees that are much more productive than the forests and bush they replaced.

Figure 1.2 Land use in Murang'a District in 1988

There have been a few efforts which have attempted to assess the impact of tree growing on the smallholder economy or why trees have assumed such an important role. A number of these attempts have focused on cultural attitudes toward trees, such as gender restrictions on tree planting in Kakamaga (Chavangi 1987). In Murang'a, district, household characteristics (farm size, household composition, cropping patterns and so on) have been closely related to patterns of tree cultivation and management (Bradley and Ngugi 1986). Cowen's fascinating history of wattle production in Central Province (Cowen 1978) provides important perspectives on the growth and spread of this tree planting practice, but does not address the question of why wattle continues to be maintained as a land use practice in the face of more lucrative land use alternatives in the Post-Independence economy.

A few studies have sought to explore the economic rationale for farmer tree growing in Kenya. Ongugo's study in South Nyanza, (Western Kenya) for example, focussed on economic resource allocation in the cultivation of tobacco, maize, and fuelwood (Ongugo 1985). Lubega's study of agroforestry systems in dryland areas of Machakos District (Central Kenya) explored the potential economic impacts of alley cropping on maize production (Lubega 1987).

The rationale for tree planting

A number of relatively straightforward conclusions can be drawn about different tree growing strategies. It can be assumed, for instance, that farmers have planted eucalyptus woodlots in response to growing demands for construction poles. Black wattle woodlots in turn, probably indicate that there are markets for wattle bark, and that there may be charcoal and fuelwood markets in addition to household, subsistence demand.

Other tree cultivation practices have little to do with these types of market opportunities. The predominance of hedges and windrows, for instance, is largely accounted for by considerations other than economics (although quite often trees are planted that can eventually be harvested and sold). Tree planting practices such as the intercropping of Sesbania sesban with maize are undertaken as part of soil improvement and management strategies. Shade trees are also highly valued.

If the extent of income-generating tree planting practices is considered, however, the argument that they evolved as a result of "market forces" tells us little. There remains the question of why resource-constrained farmers use their land for the cultivation and management of trees instead of other crops. Although an intensively managed 1 ha woodlot of eucalyptus or black wattle can provide a net income of around KSh 1,000 to 2,000 per year, a hectare of maize can generate an income of KSh 4,000 to 5,000 per year. Coffee can generate around twice this, and tea. twice as much again (World Bank 1986). Maintaining land under tree cover in the face of these alternative ways of generating income seems something of a contradiction.

Preliminary interviews with farmers in Western Kenya suggest that some of our perceptions of the smallholder economy were entirely wrong. It is generally believed that there are serious problems of unemployment in Kenya, (Republic of Kenya 1986) and that with a population growing at an astonishing rate of nearly 4 percent in some areas, (one of the highest in the world) these problems will become much worse. Farmers in Western Kenya however indicated that labour supplies were severely limited and that tree growing was seen as a labour-extensive means of alleviating these constraints. It can be argued that trees may be emerging as the cash crop of the rural poor.

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