Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
2) What was the institutional context (partners with which cooperated?)
The project aimed at improving an approach that is actively used and institution-
alized by the extension services in Kenya and Tanzania. Therefore both services
were partner and client in this project. In each country an experienced research
partner participated. The project was scientifically supervised by Wageningen
University and managed by Alterra. The African Highlands Programme was
regularly consulted in order to ensure compliance with their regional activities.
Partners:
•
Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Soil and Water Conservation Branch, Kenya
•
Lushoto District Agriculture and Food Security Office, Tanzania
•
Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Regional Centre Embu, Kenya
•
Agricultural Research Institute Mlingano, Tanzania
•
Wageningen University, Department of Environmental Sciences
•
Alterra Green World Research
B) Project objectives
Goal of the project was (i) to make better use of farmers' knowledge in SWC
planning, (ii) to include cost-benefit analysis to facilitate informed decisions by
farmers and increase adoption (iii) to improve the planning and bring it to the level
of a catchment, rather than farm by farm. This resulted in 5 objectives
•
To develop field scale indicators of erosion and sedimentation based on indigen-
ous knowledge of soil and vegetation characteristics.
•
To attach quantitative values of erosion, sedimentation and/or productivity to the
developed indicators, based on field scale measurements.
•
To quantify erosion, sedimentation and soil productivity at catchment scale using
the developed indicators and compare the estimates with a detailed model study
to develop simple 'rules of thumb' for erosion assessment.
•
To develop a methodology for economic impact assessment of planned soil and
water conservation measures at farm level.
•
To further develop a specific methodology for catchment scale soil and water
conservation planning in the East African highlands using a participatory approach.
C) Project activities
Description
Figure 1 gives the various clusters of activities and their interrelations. Three types
of activities are distinguished:
•
Activities that contributed to the development of the tool for participatory soil
erosion mapping, relating to farmers' indicators and how they can be used for
SWC planning;
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