Soft System Methodology in the Management of Agroecosystem Health and Sustainability Concerns of a Tropical Highlands Agroecosystem - Integrated Assessment of Health and Sustainability of Agroecosystems - page 142

Plate 5.4 The condition of the access road in Kiawamagira in November 1997 after the
initial attempts by the community to repair it.
Plate 5.5 A healing gully in the Kiawamagira intensive study site after community interven-
tion with assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture, Kiambu district, Kenya, January 1999.
incorporated into the initial process is worth considering in order to guide com-
munities toward activities that are more likely to succeed. In the context of action
research, initial failures can be viewed as learning experiences that result in creation
of local theory on project implementation. However, where resources are limited
and the communities' capacity for collective action is weak, it is likely that initial
failure may result in further degeneration into community inertia. In Kiawamagira
village, initial rehabilitation was followed by massive gullies along the access road,
but the communities were not deterred from trying. They recognized that they had
not assessed the situation adequately and hence causing the failure. In Thiririka,
attempts were made to develop a water project from a natural spring in the village.
It was found that this spring could only have an output of not more than 80 liters
of water a day. This disheartened the community to the point that only nominal
attempts have been made to implement most other activities in their action plans.