Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
respondents. Soil infertility was a more common problem in Githima (23.1%) and
Mahindi (22.5%) villages. Githima (14.8%) village had more respondents reporting
lack of capital than in other villages. Flooding and waterlogging was reported only
in Thiririka and Kiawamagira villages.
Nearly all the respondents (96.3%) indicated that they would like to improve
farm productivity, whether by starting new enterprises or improving existing ones
(Table 2.6). The majority of respondents not willing to improve farm productiv-
ity were in Gikabu (11/30) and Thiririka (12/30) villages. Most of the respondents
reported that they would prefer to improve livestock (mainly dairy) production and
horticulture. In Githima village, most respondents reported that they preferred to
enhance cash crop (tea or coffee) production compared to all the other options.
2.3.4 h
e A l t h
A n D
s
u s tA i in A b i l i t y
A
s s e s s m e n t
Communities understood the concepts of health and health indicators and accepted
the notion of using indicators to evaluate the status of their agroecosystem. They
appeared to regard the approach not as an innovation, but as a revisiting and mod-
ernization of traditional methods of agroecosystem management.
Communities in the ISSs opted to carry out agroecosystem evaluations and assess-
ments jointly with other ISSs. The communities initiated intervillage collaboration
because they felt that participants from other study sites provided additional useful
criticism and suggestions compared to those by the researchers and extension agents.
2.3.5 i
m p l e m e in t A t i of in
of f
i
n t e r v e n t i of n s
At the end of the initial village workshops, all communities expressed a profound
demand for action to ameliorate the problems identified. Formation of the village
committees was seen as evidence of their desire to implement the action plans. Five
of the six villages proceeded with implementation of the action plans immediately
after the workshops, mostly without further contact or consultation with the research
team. In nearly all the cases, this led to some degree of frustration on the part of
the communities as they were ill prepared in terms of organization and community
leadership to carry out many of the tasks. However, there were some successes, and
failure and frustration did not deter most of the communities from continuing to try.
Further details are provided in Chapter 3. Details on the methods used to facilitate
planning and implementation of action plans by the communities are provided in
Chapter 4.
2.4
dIscussIon
2.4.1 h
o l A r C h i C A l
s
C A l e
There were two reasons why the village was selected as the target level for this study.
Foremost of these is that at the village/catchment level, ecological, economic, and
social factors are integrated, resulting in unique emergent properties. Second, trade-
offs among farms within a village are essential factors in the sustainability of agri-
culture in the entire Kiambu ecosystem. The land-use level was selected because it is
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