Agroforestry in Small Scale Farming In Kenya
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Date
2001-02
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
The biosphere is the fourth system in the environment and it is the zone where all living
things (plants, animals and people) are living. It is a unique feature of the earth because the
other planets were said to not have any trace of life. It is a region where there is enough water,
mineral and gaseous reserves. The biosphere is therefore the expanse zone of land, water and
air. It is a zone, which is an immense variety of living species varying in size from minute
bacteria to huge trees and big animals. In this zone, life forms and other things existed under
equilibrium or balance. There was a good marriage between crops and the environment. These
mean that animals lived in milieu that fit both for them and their future generations.
The recent unmindful exploitation of the environmental resources has created an unfavourable
condition that has caused animals and birds to migrate to the other areas. Changes in climate
have also contributed to the movement of species and sometimes making them become rare in
their original habitats. Now as conditions become unfavourable, animals and birds migrate to
other areas. Climate change is another element that moves the species and sometimes they
become rare.
As mentioned before, human beings are also part of the elements of the biosphere. They live in
interdependence with to plants and animals for food and other necessities oflife. Human beings
have continuously modified the environment causing change in the types of species and the
ecological interactions among them. These changes occur as result of development, which is a
necessity but which is conducted in a manner that is sometimes not sustainable. Due to the
illusory believe in unlimited bounty of natural resources, human activities such as deforestation,
overgrazing and use of fertilisers and pesticides, the impact of oil spills and increasing pollution
in the biosphere have alerted people on the need for environmental conservation and
development that is sustainable.
Reijntjes and others (1992) quoted: "In 1989 the World Commission on Environment
and Development (WC.E.D) called attention to the immense problems and challenges facing
world agriculture, if present and fixture food needs are to be met, and the need for a new
approach to agricultural development". It observed that "The agricultural systems that have
been built up over the past few decades have contributed greatly to the alleviation °Munger and
the raising of living standards. They have served their purposes up to a point But they were
built for the purposes of a small, more fragmented world. New realities reveal their inherent
contradictions. These realities require agricultural systems that focus as much attention on people as they do on technology, as much on resources as on production, as much on the long
tenn as on the short term. Only such systems can meet the challenge of the future"' (W.C.E.D
1987,p.144). The United Nations, also being preoccupied by the future of the coming
generations, said: "Degradation of land results in not only a loss ofproductivity but it reduces
the productive potential of these resources for figure generations."2
The situation in Kenya is not different from the foresaid. The challenge is therefore how to
manage well the Kenya resources in the Kenyan environment so that the coming generations
would also live happily? The other challenge is how to educate the population and make it
aware of their environmental heritage and be themselves the stewards of the their future? This
paper proposes that Agroforestry is the best way out of this puzzle.
Agroforestry is a land use system in which trees and / or shrubs are managed together with
crops and / or livestock on the same piece of land either at the same time or at different times.
Agroforestry in farming is a way of developing the earth without violating God's plan. It has
double meanings: For the sustenance of the human creation and the protection or sustenance of
the environmental resources. This agriculture is more sustainable than both traditional and
industrial ones. It does more justice and gives respect to the environment as well as to
promoting better human survival. If deforestation, erosion, traditional and industrial
technologies contribute to the degradation of the land, it will be recovered through Agroforestry
sustained in small-scale farming.
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Keywords
Agroforestry, Small Scale Farming, Natural Resources, Human factors, Soil fertility management