Development of Health and Sustainability Indicators for a Tropical Highlands Agroecosystem - Integrated Assessment of Health and Sustainability of Agroecosystems - page 174

table 6.8
summary statistics for Qualitative land-use unit (luu)-level Researcher-
Proposed Indicators of agroecosystem Health measured in 225 luu in 12
Villages of Kiambu district, Kenya
attribute

category description categories

Biophysical Biophysical

efficiency

Allocative Napier

production

A = 0.86 P = 0.14

Pests,
diseases,
and health

Animal Morbidity in

cattle

A = 0.64 P = 0.36

Crops Occurrence of

plant diseases

A = 0.22 P = 0.78

Soil fertility Chemical

fertility

Soil fertility score H = 0.09 L = 0.91

Water Availability Distance to water

source

H = 0.08 L = 0.92

Economic Capital Investments Coffee production A = 0.92 P = 0.08

Investments Tea production A = 0.84 P = 0.16

Income Savings Ownership of a

bank account

A = 0.26 P = 0.74

Social Aspirations Satisfaction Farm productivity

score

H = 0.12 L = 0.28 S = 0.60

Attitudes Education School dropout

rate

A = 0.65 E = 0.29 P = 0.06

Knowledge
and
information

Informal Frequency of clan

meetings

H = 0.22 L = 0.31 N = 0.47

Sources Extension contact A = 0.31 P = 0.69

Linkages Contacts Frequency of

visits to friends

H = 0.15 L = 0.51 N = 0.35

Familial
ties

Frequency of
visits to relatives

H = 0.15 L = 0.56 N = 0.28

Organization Reciprocity Frequency of

exchanges

H = 0.12 L = 0.48 N = 0.40

A, absent; E, nonresponse; H, high; L, low; N, none; P, present; S, satisfactory

6.4.2 i in D i C A t o r m e A s u r e m e n t A n D r e f i n e m e n t
A major constraint to the community-based indicator measurement was the cul-
tural inhibitions to discuss certain issues in public. Although selected as indicators
of health and diseases by most communities, human morbidity and mortality, for
example, were not discussed in public, and data were not supplied. This diminishes
the value of the indicators and the overall assessment as a decision support tool. A
more positive aspect was that the data for most of the indicators were on an ordinal
scale, making interpretation and overall assessment easier. In some instances, how-
ever, the data gathered were mostly anecdotal and therefore of limited value. More