Agricultural Policy in Kenya: Issues and Processes
Introduction
Agriculture remains the backbone of the Kenyan economy. It is the single most
important sector in the economy, contributing approximately 25% of the GDP, and
employing 75% of the national labour force (Republic of Kenya 2005). Over 80% of the
Kenyan population live in the rural areas and derive their livelihoods, directly or
indirectly from agriculture. Given its importance, the performance of the sector is
therefore reflected in the performance of the whole economy. The development of
agriculture is also important for poverty reduction since most of the vulnerable groups
like pastoralists, the landless, and subsistence farmers, also depend on agriculture as their
main source of livelihoods. Growth in the sector is therefore expected to have a greater
impact on a larger section of the population than any other sector. The development of the
sector is therefore important for the development of the economy as a whole.
The importance of the sector in the economy is reflected in the relationship between its
performance and that of the key indicators like GDP and employment. Trends in the
growth rates for agriculture, GDP and employment, show that the declining trend
experienced in the sector’s growth especially in the 1990s, is reflected in the declines in
employment and GDP as a whole (fig. 1. in Appendix). Policies that affect the
performance of the sector have important implications for the economy.
Policies for agriculture consist of government decisions that influence the level and
stability of input and output prices, public investments affecting agricultural
production, costs and revenues and allocation of resources. These policies affect
agriculture either directly or indirectly. Improved agricultural production has been
seen as one of the overall objectives for poverty reduction in the country. The
objectives of agricultural sector strategy have been increasing agricultural growth,
seen as important for increasing rural incomes and ensuring equitable distribution.
Due to limited availability of high potential land, it has been envisaged that increasing
agricultural production will have to come from intensification of production through
increased use of improved inputs, diversification especially from low to high value
crops, commercialisation of smallholder agriculture, and increased value addition
through stronger linkages with other sectors. In the following sections, we review
some of the key policy issues and concerns with respect to the sector’s development.
Key Policy Issues
Agricultural policy in Kenya revolves around the main goals of increasing
productivity and income growth, especially for smallholders; enhanced food security
and equity, emphasis on irrigation to introduce stability in agricultural output,
commercialisation and intensification of production especially among small scale
farmers; appropriate and participatory policy formulation and environmental
sustainability. The key areas of policy concern, therefore, include:
•Increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, especially for small-holder
farmers.
•Emphasis on irrigation to reduce over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture in the face
of limited high potential agricultural land.
•Encouraging diversification into non-traditional agricultural commodities and
value addition to reduce vulnerability.
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•Enhancing the food security and a reduction in the number of those suffering from
hunger and hence the achievement of MDGs.
•Encouraging private-sector-led development of the sector.
•Ensuring environmental sustainability.
Key policy concerns
i. Declining agricultural performance: Declining performance of the sector in
terms of its growth, has been one of the major concerns facing policy makers and
those having interests in the sector. The performance of agriculture, which
remains the backbone of the economy slackened dramatically over the post
independence years from an average of 4.7% in the first decade to only below 2%
in the 90s. This decline culminated in a negative growth rate of -2.4% in 2000. As
a sector that engages about 75% of the country’s labour force, such a decline
implies lower levels of employment, incomes and more importantly, food
insecurity for a vast majority of rural Kenyans. It is instructive to note that a
sizeable proportion of the rural labour force (over 51%) are engaged in small-scale
agriculture and that women are the majority in the sector. A decline in agriculture
has thus far reaching implications in terms of employment and income inequality
as well as food security for the country (UNDP 2002).
•Despite its declining performance, agriculture has continued to support the
livelihoods of over two thirds of the labour force. This was mainly because the
decline in agriculture’s performance since the mid 1980s was not matched with
any real transformation in the economy which would have ensured that the share
of other sectors in GDP and employment increased as agriculture’s share declined
(ILO 1999). As a result, incomes have continued to decline as poverty has
continued to entrench itself in the rural areas.
•It is recognised that low productivity, reflected in low yields per acre of land is
among the main sources of high unit production costs in agriculture in Kenya.
Among the reasons that explain this is the inability by farmers to afford readily
available modern technologies of farming. The objective of policy makers in this
area, therefore, is to increase output using improved technologies of farming,
which would inevitably increase farm productivity and hence farmers incomes.
•Agricultural productivity can be increased, farmers incomes raised, more people
fed and in deed, the general economic welfare enhanced. The SRA (2004-2014)
recognises this and that to improve smallholder farm productivity as well as
increase incomes, smallholder farming must be changed from producing for
subsistence to commercial profitable businesses. It will then attract private
entrepreneurs willing to invest therein and employ modern farming techniques
necessary to achieve increased productivity. When agriculture is technology-led,
not only is food security achievable but also poverty alleviation is also possible.
Inability to afford new and readily available farming technology, however, is
partly blamed on poor access to financial resources, especially in a nation where
the majority, and not only farmers, are poor and the financial markets have not
developed to support agricultural investment.
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•Poor marketing facilities and institutions are some of the constraints to increased
agricultural production. The major marketing constraints comprise high
transportation costs due to dilapidated roads, improper handling, poor storage
facilities and wastage. These result in fluctuations in both productions and
incomes. For livestock marketing, limited cattle holding grounds and meddling
with stock-routes has limited access to markets. Promoting marketing of
agricultural produce will require that holding grounds, watering points, stock-
routes and livestock markets be developed; the private sector be encouraged to
invest in slaughter houses and cold storage; local authorities in collaboration with
the private sector invest in storage facilities; the government provides all-weather
rural access roads, improve communication facilities and market information
systems among others. The two sets of interventions, in enhancing agricultural
productivity and marketing systems as recognized too by the SRA (2004-2014)
will lead to agricultural growth.
ii. Limited high potential agricultural land and over-reliance on rain fed
agriculture. Only about 17% of the country’s land is high and medium potential
agricultural land where most intensive crop and dairy production take place. The
rest is arid and semi arid, not suitable for rain fed agriculture. This means that
increasing agricultural production will have to come from intensification of land
use in the high and medium potential lands. The high reliance on rain fed
agriculture vulnerable to weather variability leads to fluctuations in production
and incomes especially for rural areas. There is low utilisation of irrigation
potential with only less than 7% of the cropped land under irrigation1. Poor rains
always lead to poor agricultural performance and the subsequent famines affecting
large sections of the population. This spills over to negatively affect agricultural
incomes and hence investments in rural areas.
•Droughts and floods have increased in frequency and intensity in the immediate
past three decades, resulting in high crop failure and livestock deaths. The current
ravaging drought is a stark reminder to this. In addition, increased land
degradation has also decreased land resilience thereby exacerbating the effects of
droughts and floods leading to devastating famines that claim increasing human
and livestock lives. Recurrent droughts, floods and the associated losses are
concerns that have featured much in public debate in the recent past.
•Over reliance on rain-fed agriculture, therefore, can be seen as one of the major
causes of food insecurity. Despite the enormous potential for irrigation, irrigation
based farming is not widely practiced. It is developed under large-scale irrigation
schemes for crops like rice a few farmers have their own irrigation systems for
export crops like horticultural produce and a limited number of smallholders
practice small scale irrigation farming. This has been due to low utilisation of
water, lack of efficient technologies, destruction of rainfall catchment areas, poor
management of government irrigation schemes, degradation of surface water,
uncontrolled exploitation of underground water, leading to a drop in the water
table and increase of water extraction costs, sluggishness in permit allocation for
use of water, the lop sided Nile Treaty among others. Putting more emphasis on
1Kenya has 540,000 hectares of irrigable land but less than 90,000 hectares have been irrigated
(SRA 2004).
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irrigation is important in increasing arable land, productivity per acre of land,
stability of agricultural output during adverse weather conditions and stemming
famines achievable only with addressing factors that hinder irrigation efforts.
iii. Limited diversification of Agricultural production: Narrow base of agricultural
products, especially exports leads to high vulnerability of incomes to the
international market trends. The sector is characterised by weak vertical
integration, made worse by weak institutions and support services for agricultural
exports. Only a few commodities (coffee, tea, dairy, maize, wheat, beef, and
horticulture provide livelihood for over 85% of the population while coffee and
tea alone provide 45% of the wage employment in the sector. Closely linked to
this is the narrow base for agricultural exports (UNDP 2002).
•Primary agro-based products constitute about 51% of the country’s total exports,
with the value of exports from agricultural sector accounting for 64% of total
exports (Kenya 2003)a. Despite the potential for exports of fresh produce and the,
it only accounts for 3% of the total production of fresh produce. This is mainly
due to limited diversification, and low value addition in agricultural exports. The
challenges to the diversification of agricultural exports, which hinder the
realisation of the potential include; poor outdated technology that hinders the
processing of agricultural products into high value products, limited access to
breeds with high yield potentials, WTO regulations that increase the cost of
imported seeds and planting materials, limited capacity by quality assurance
bodies to ensure compliance with international standards and the imposition of
non tariff barriers to trade like sanitary and phytosanitary standards.
•Kenya has not exploited its agricultural potential to the full which is necessary to
diversify into no-traditional commodities. This would improve and stabilise
agricultural output, productivity, incomes, significantly check famine and thus
food insecurity. The country has varied climatic conditions suitable for diversified
agriculture into specialised niches like horticulture, herbs, spices, fruits and even
lean beef, but which have not been exploited to the fullest despite very good
efforts made in horticulture and fruits. There is also a vast fish potential that has
remained unexploited. The inability to effectively monitor and enforce compliance
and rules governing offshore territorial waters has curtailed full exploitation of the
offshore fishing potential. However, full exploitation of this potential has been
hindered too by lack of equipment to undertake deep-sea fishing and the
availability of more lucrative alternative sources of livelihood found in the tourist
industry.
•Produce from agriculture is commonly marketed with minimal processing
resulting in low revenue earning capacity to farmers, fishermen and creation of
fewer employment opportunities for citizens. Efforts should be made to enhance
agro-processing to increase value of agricultural exports and enhance their income
earning potential. Some of these measures recognized by SRA (2004-2014)
include, provision of appropriate incentives for establishing agro-industries in
rural areas; focused research on value addition regarding processing, storage and
packing of agricultural produce; promotion of partnerships between smallholders
and agribusiness; improvement of supportive infrastructure, e.g., rural access
roads, rural electrification, water and telecommunications; and undertake training
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for farmers and farmer institutions in value addition among others. The media has
recently highlighted the plight of mango farmers who cannot market their bumper
produce.
•There is also limited exploitation of the regional market potential. The regional
markets that have resulted from regional integration, e.g., in the East African
Community (EAC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
(COMESA), etc., and trade liberalisation are yet to be exploited to a significant
level. The government needs to encourage trade in agricultural produce across
borders, improve and/or provide quality control services, capacity build farmers
and fish traders on sanitary, phytosanitary and zoo sanitary measures and
international standards, build effective systems to gather and utilize information
on external market opportunities, enhance efficiency in port and airport handling
services to eliminate delays and costs, designate disease free zones to speed up
access to export markets for livestock and their products. Furthermore, the country
can become a regional hub for exports to the opened up markets through regional
integration and trade liberalisation to the Far East as well.
iv. Poor and inadequate rural infrastructure: Poor infrastructure including poor
rural roads, markets and transport systems that result in high transactions costs for
farmers and inaccessibility to input and output markets are among the main
concerns for the sector. The performance of the sector is affected right from the
production to marketing domestically and even internationally. For exports this
means lack of sustainable supply of raw materials due to uncontrolled production,
with gluts alternating with shortages as well as uncompetitiveness since high
transport costs are reflected in high prices. Poor infrastructure has also contributed
to the poor market integration in the country.
•Although agriculture has over the years contributed more than proportionately to
GDP growth in comparison to other sectors, this has been partly due to
infrastructure established through efforts made for specific commodities. Some of
these include provision and maintenance of rural access roads to facilitate the
movement of agricultural produce to markets, establishment of agro-based
industries to increase the value of agricultural produce, education, training and
extension services to enhance the adoption of modern farming techniques,
establishment of local market centres to open up markets for farmers produce,
rural electrification to facilitate agro-processing and safe storage for the produce.
Most of these services have been provided centrally by the government through
various concerned implementing ministries, until when new fiscal reforms were
initiated after the realisation that the productivity of the funds ware not very
effective.
v. Inadequate and declining research in agriculture: During the first decade of
independence, agricultural research emphasised cash crops and major food crops
led to major break throughs in these commodities, which largely contributed to
increased agricultural production. There was however insufficient appreciation of
the economic aspects of small scale farming, leading to research being based on
input levels that were uneconomical to the small farmers. Productivity from small
scale farms has therefore been lower than from the large scale farms. Agricultural
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research was also not coordinated, until the creation of the national scientific and
research council. Training for agricultural extension staff also expanded.
•Inadequate research, especially demand driven research, coupled with ineffective
extension and delivery system of research findings has been yet another concern.
The decline in government allocation to the sector has contributed to this
continuing trend. The results here include decline in other agricultural services
like artificial insemination services, lack of good quality seed and planting
materials for farmers. High costs have led to inadequate application of improved
purchased inputs on most of the farms. A major concern with respect to research
is also that the limited research activities generally cover only export crops,
ignoring the essential food crops. The research system in place for agriculture also
faces a number of problems like lack of strong research-extension-farmer
linkages, inadequate funding, and high turnover of research scientists due to poor
incentives.
•The provision of services has also been affected by too many official interventions
especially in commodity marketing and pricing, characterised by proliferation of
parastatal activities in pricing controls of agricultural commodities. Institutional
failure due to lack of capacity by the private sector to take over the functions
previously performed by the state after liberalisation of the sector. Limited
investment and coordination by local research institutions like KARI and
institutions of higher leaning is also a concern.
•A number of constraints have however hindered further progress in research. Lack
of well defined priorities that reflect policy pronouncements, lack of monitoring
and evaluation, the low use of trained scientists from institutions of higher
learning and low funds for research have all contributed to the concern. The
ability of Kenyan agriculture to play its role in the economy depends on the
research agenda that the country charts out for its national agricultural research
system. The international agricultural research centres should therefore only
complement local research output. Although agricultural research is currently
coordinated by Kenya Agricultural Institute (KARI), a critical problem is
availability of research funds. Research expenditure as a percentage of GDP
remains below 10%, although most financing has been done by donors.
vi. Agricultural sector financing and related activities. The lack of finance for
agriculture limits increasing production and investment in value addition activities
in agriculture. Inaccessibility to credit especially for small scale farmers and
especially women has limited the range of activities, the type of technology used
and the scale of operations that a farmer can adopt on his farm. Agricultural credit
available to farmers has tended to diminish over time since independence.
Although there have been a number of institutions that have been involved in
agricultural financing over time, actual investment in the sector has been small.
Thus to improve agricultural productivity and incomes, especially of smallholders
most of whom reside in rural areas, access to affordable financial credit is
important to enable them acquire new farming technology - a necessary input in
realising the higher productivity goal.
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•There has been a bias of credit towards large farms and cash enterprises. Poor
mobilisation of financial resources through weak cooperative system, and grass
roots organisations needs to be addressed.
vii. Limited development and exploitation of the livestock sector. Despite the long
recognised potential of the livestock sector, this potential remains largely
unexploited. Kenya’s livestock sector contributes 10% to the GDP and about 42%
of total agricultural output (Republic of Kenya 2002). It supplies the domestic
requirements of meat, milk, dairy products and other livestock products, and
accounts for about 30% of all marketed agricultural output. The sector also earns
foreign exchange through the export of live animals, hides and skins, dairy
products and processed pork products besides providing raw materials for agro-
based industries. It employs 50% of total agricultural labour force. Although
livestock keeping is commonly practiced through out Kenya, more than 60% of all
Kenya’s livestock is found in the ASAL where it employs 90% of the local
population. The livestock sector is charged with ensuring self sufficiency in
livestock products (Republic of Kenya 2002; Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries
Development 2006).
•The development of the livestock sector is however constrained by a number of
factors. Recurrent droughts that lead to massive losses in livestock and therefore
livelihoods for the pastoralists are a major concern. This, coupled with lack of
reliable markets has seriously undermined efforts to realise the full development
potential of the sector. Since the liberalisation of domestic marketing of
agricultural products, which reduced the role of marketing boards like Kenya
Meat Commission (KMC) and Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC), the
marketing of livestock and livestock products was left to private traders, who
lacked the capacity to take over the role of the state corporations (ILO 2002). The
marketing problem has been aggravated by the poor state of infrastructure, which
increases the marketing costs.
•The high costs of inputs and veterinary services have also constrained the
development of the sector. The withdrawal of government subsidies as part of
economic reforms meant that many farmers became unable to afford such
services, leading to reduction in their use. The privatisation of artificial
insemination services has in effect increased costs, which has led to decline in the
use of such services. This has led to the problem of poor quality livestock through
problems of inbreeding and limited use of improved inputs. Diseases and pests
also pose a challenge to the sub-sector due to weak inspectorate and quality
assurance as well as lack of enforcement of the existing rule and regulations
governing the movement of livestock and their products.
•The high potential for exports from livestock and livestock products remains
unexploited due to inadequate capacity in standardisation and quality control as
well as inadequate processing capacity. This has meant that the livestock sector is
largely dominated by primary production with little processing of produce. The
shortage of high quality breeding stock acts as a further constraint to the
exploitation of exports from the livestock sector. The lack of quality control and
standardisation of livestock products has significantly hindered access to foreign
markets as local farmers fail to meet export health standards and quality
requirements.
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•Due to pressure from other competing land uses, the high and medium potential
areas have been turned into growing of subsistence crops. This has meant that
alternative management systems for livestock production have to be adopted.
While in the high potential areas livestock production is threatened by population
pressure, in the ASALs, it is problems of land degradation, droughts, and soil
erosion that are the main threat. Inadequate water facilities, poor marketing
infrastructure and poor animal husbandry practices as well as poor slaughtering
practices limits the quality of hides for exports.
•Other policy concerns in the livestock sector arise from the marketing of products
like dairy. Milk marketing was liberalised in 1992, leading to the proliferation in
the market of private processors and informal traders/hawkers of raw milk.
Critical issues that have emerged influencing the development of the sector
therefore include, marketing arrangements for private traders, product quality
control and assurance as well as the management of strategic reserves. The
production and marketing of beef products has been affected mainly by the
collapse of the KMC. Although Kenya has the potential to meet her domestic
demand for meat and realise a surplus for export, local producers continue to face
problems of drought, and poor marketing outlets that limit their production. Poor
timing of livestock sales, with majority of pastoralists selling their stock under
very desperate circumstances, is another problem.
•There is therefore need for programmes that enhance access to appropriate
production technologies and inputs as well as increasing the efficiency and overall
productivity of the sector.
•The revitalisation of the livestock sector will therefore require among other things,
the rehabilitation of marketing infrastructure facilities, facilitating the private
sector to invest in both primary and secondary livestock processing plants close to
production areas. It will also be necessary to develop programmes that promote
and support the production of feeds that augment the conventional feeds. Reviving
and privatising the KMC to provide a market outlet for livestock will also
contribute to reducing the vulnerability of livestock farmers especially pastoralists
whose livelihoods depend on livestock. This is especially important in addressing
the problem of food security in the ASALs.
viii. Lack of a comprehensive land use policy: This has over time led to difficulties of
access and utilisation of land. The country lacks a clearly articulated land policy
with the result that issues like land use, management, tenure reforms and
environmental protection are inadequately addressed through the existing systems
(Kenya 2001). Land is an important resource in agriculture in Kenya and lack of
access to or ownership of land is considered one of the major causes of poverty
(UNDP 2002). The scarcity of agricultural land makes the issue of land use policy
a critical one. Only less than 20% of the country’s land surface is high and
medium potential. The PRSP identifies the improvement of land uses management
as one of the ways of improving agriculture.
•Issues on land that are relevant to agricultural development include conflicts
between different land uses due to the lack of a coordinating body that can ensure
harmony between different users (Kenya 1994). Harmonisation of different
development activities that can foster optimal land use and control of
environmental degradation is a critical issue..
•The failure by the existing land conservation policy and the need to have attendant
laws to generate environmentally sound land use habits for sustainable
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development is a relevant concern for agriculture. There has been an over
emphasis on the protection of property rights and inadequate provision for the
regulation of the rights in the interest of soil conservation. This is compounded by
the lack of a well coordinated land management policy with respect to various
land uses. The existence of numerous legislations and complex procedures
relating to plan approvals, subdivisions and registration prevent the various
government agencies from keeping up with the demand for their services.
•The lack of accurate and up to date database information on land is also a critical
issue. Most information on land continues to originate from the districts.
•The problems of pastoral land tenure relations, with its roots in the dispossession
of pastoral communities of their lands by the colonial administration, has
implications for agricultural development especially food security and
sustainability. There should also be security and equity in access to and use of
land in pastoral areas. There is therefore need to provide a legal framework that
defines and recognises pastoral land and related natural resource rights. There is
need to recognise pastoralism as a legitimate land use system as the basis for legal
backing.
Possible Policy Concerns
•Maize is the main staple commodity in the country and therefore important for
food security. National food policy and the ability to meet the country’s food
security needs is therefore a major concern with respect to maize. The majority of
Kenyans are food insecure due to inadequate strategic reserves in major food
commodities, and lack of proper distribution systems that can facilitate the
efficient movement of food commodities from surplus to deficit areas. They have
no access to adequate quantities of food and even what they have access to, has
poor nutritional value. The main cause of shortfalls especially in maize has over
time resulted from the low use of fertilisers, lack of finance and the withdrawal of
other services like extension by the government. Lack of guarantee for markets for
maize produce has compounded the problem as farmers have no incentive to
invest in productivity increasing practices. The incidence and prevalence of food
insecurity, however, is greatest in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) due to
poor resource endowment and scanty and unpredictable rainfall patterns. While
the area is endowed with livestock production potential, lack of markets for
livestock has increased the vulnerability of pastoralists whose livelihoods depend
on livestock products but are negatively affected by weather variations. This has
compounded the problem of food security in the ASALs. Pastoralists often remain
with inadequate livestock to sustain their livelihoods after prolonged droughts
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•That famine is a frequent phenomenon in the country is a source of great concern
to policy makers while its regular highlights in the media reflect the media’s
distaste for it. It is not easy to reconcile that in a country where agriculture is the
mainstay of the economy, famine is so frequent. Some of the famines experienced
could have been avoided or their impacts significantly mitigated. These include,
famine brought about by drought, floods and rapid deforestation. Inadequate early
warning systems, disaster unpreparedness, farming practices that do not hinge on
environmental sustainability, rampant destruction of rainfall catchment areas
especially through rapid encroachment of human settlements, lack of
implementation of elements of the food security policy are some of the culprits of
the frequent occurrence of famine. Further, poor logistics worsen famine
management even with bumper harvests in the food basket regions of the country
particularly the north rift. The current ravaging famine in the ASALs would have
been significantly checked if logistics were right to move surplus food from the
basket zones. Famine amidst plenty reflects generally on the country’s state of
unpreparedness in the face of a disaster. Measures to address these handicaps and
those that would match population growth to food production that include family
life education - family planning - ought to be adopted.
•Increasing importance of small scale agriculture in the sector, coupled with its
declining productivity and low incomes are a concern especially relevant to
poverty reduction efforts. The small scale sector contributes 75% of total
agricultural production and over 70% of the total marketed production, reflecting
the increasing importance of smallholder farms in agricultural production, and
absorbs about 51% of the total labour force in the sector. Food production also
accounts for a major share of small scale agricultural production (Republic of
Kenya 1999). The importance of agriculture especially smallholders as a source of
livelihoods in the rural areas is therefore a major concern for agricultural and rural
development. This is because of the high poverty levels in the rural areas
especially among smallholder subsistence farmers.
•The significant involvement of women in small scale agriculture is an important
factor among measures to improve agricultural performance. Women provide 75%
of the labour force in small scale agriculture and manage 40% of the small scale
farms. Upto 2/3 of the female population in rural areas is engaged in subsistence
farming. Despite women’s significant contribution to agriculture, they face a
number of constraints, especially limited access to productive resources like
improved inputs, extension, and marketing facilities which limit their productivity.
Institutional factors also limit women’s access to financial services. The
expansion of rural investments like infrastructure is likely to have more beneficial
effect on women, the majority of whom are among the.
•The increasing disparities in opportunities and incomes between agriculture and
rural areas on the one hand and non agricultural urban areas on the other hand is
also a concern. These disparities have meant that poverty levels have continued to
be higher in the rural areas where the majority of the population reside.
•Environmental degradation and rising poverty is a major concern relevant to
agricultural development. As agricultural land continues to be scarce, and rural
poverty continues to increase, agricultural practices that conflict with the
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environment have increased. High levels of poverty in the rural areas, where
agriculture is the main source of livelihoods, have significant implications for
environmental sustainability. The poor engage in farming practices that negatively
affect the environment and reduce the potential for ASALs. With increased
pressure on the natural resource base and the need to increase productivity, the
challenge remains that of intensifying land use while enhancing the long run
productive capacity of the resource base. Low productivity, with pressure on the
natural resource base has led to migration into Arid and Semi Arid Lands
(ASALs) with inappropriate farming practices and negative environmental
consequences. A big proportion of the country, (84%), is classified as ASALs and
unsuitable for rain-fed agriculture. But even in these regions, most of the activities
people engage in are agricultural. Livestock keeping predominates, with limited
small-scale crop farming practiced in some areas.
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http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTKENYA/Resources/donor_statement_agricultu
re Joint Statement of Development Partners for the Kenya Consultative Group
Meeting
