UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Major Groups

Submitting organization:	Sustainet (Sustainable Agriculture Information Network), a network of German organizations

Affiliation:

Name of Focal Point:	German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ)

Initiative Title:	From agroforestry to improved livelihoods in Chebarus village

Internet links:	http://www.brotfuerdiewelt.de

Scope:	National: - Kenya

Status:	Completed

Timeframe:	Start: 1998 End:

Lead Institution:	Christian Community Services (CCS)

Stakeholders/Partners:	Bread for the World

Relevent issues:	- Food security and sustainable agriculture - Enhancing agricultural productivity through adequate and sustainable inputs - Diversifying agricultural production systems - Land conservation and rehabilitation programmes - Soil fertility improvement practices - Management of land and water interactions - Agriculture - Others - Agroforestry - Land - Others - Preventing erosion

Objectives/Challenges:

The main goal of agroforestry is to protect dry lands against erosion and to increase the farm productivity through sustainable agriculture. More specific objectives can be defined as follows:
- Rehabilitate and conserve dry farm lands
- Protect farm lands against erosion
- Enhance the micro-climate of croplands
- Improve the environment
- Create business opportunities through founding nurseries and selling seeds
- Guarantee food security
- Reduce poverty

Lessons Learned:

- Agroforestry has the potential of not only increasing farm productivity and profitability (for example maize yields can be boosted from 222kg to 2.2~5.6t/ha), but also diversity, by generating a range of products: food, fuelwood, building materials, medicine, fodder, etc..
- Soil fertility can be improved through multiple measures: composting, crop rotation, mulching with leaves and twigs, terracing, ripping, and creating ridges, which at the same time help protect soil from erosion.
- Trees can also act as windbreaks, reduce runoff, and improve the soil structure, thereby increasing its ability to hold water.
- These practices promote activities of micro-organisms, which in turn improves the nutrient content of the soil while creating a better micro-climate.
- Founding nurseries and selling seeds for agroforestry create new profitable business opportunities.

While Agroforestry is widely applicable, it does have its own limitations:

- Agrroforestry takes work. Caring for a nursery and maintaining trees in the field adds to the farmers’ workload, which inevitably cuts into the amount of time they have to earn money elsewhere. Therefore benefits of agroforestry has to be weighed against this opportunity cost.
- It entails significant economics of scale. Benefits of agroforestry, such as reduced soil erosion and improved soil fertility and micro-climate, increase more than proportionately in the number of farmers practicing it, but are limited if only a few, scattered farmers are involved.
- Raising seedlings requires water. Thus, it is difficult to run a profitable nursery in water-scant areas.
- Most benefits realize in the long run. While certain fodder trees can be harvested in as short as 3 months, other trees take much longer before they start to produce outputs. The positive impacts on soil quality and water availability come in even more slowly.

Summary:

In the 1970s, most farmers in the Eldoret area deforested their land to plant more crops. Many planted maize because they could sell it best. The soil, which was good and productive then, degraded in fertility after years of planning only maize. The number of micro-organisms in the soil dropped considerably, due to excessive use of fertilizer and pesticides. Moreover, lack of vegetation on the soil surface exposed it to wind and water erosion, and allowed water to run off rather than seeping into the ground. All of these impoverished soil and reduced yields, driving more and more farmers of Chebarus into poverty each year.

CCs-Eldoret staff carried out a participatory appraisal in the village, through which they identified soil degradation as the core of their problems. They pinpointed maize monoculture and the deforestation as the principal cause, and saw agroforestry as a potential solution.

The trees now have totally changed the appearance of the villagers’ homesteads. Soil fertility has risen and erosion effectively prevented. Foliage from trees is use as green manure and livestocks feed; the animals produce manure, which goes back into the soil. The trees also act as windbreaks and reduce runoff, which in turn improves the soil structure and its ability to hold water. Micro-organisms, encouraged by these practices, serve to improve the nutrient content of the soil, and at the same time create a better micro-climate. In addition, the farmers have diversified their crops, reducing reliance on monocropped maize. They now grow indigenous vegetables again, harvesting a crop every three months.