Land Fragmentation In Kenya

Land Fragmentation and Agricultural Productivity and Implication for Food Security in Africa

Introduction

It is projected that by the year 2050 the global population will grow by 2.3 billion surpassing a 9 billion mark (FAO, 2009, AGRA, 2013). The fastest growth is expected to come from Sub-Saharan Africa region with expected growth in excess of 114% (FAO 2009). Increased population implies increase pressure on limited natural capital resources including land and water. Consequently, market demand for food is expected to grow significantly over the same period. The demand for food and animal feed is anticipated to reach 3 billion tonnes, up from today’s nearly 2.1 billion tonnes (FAO, 2009). Coupled with food demand, is the demand for feedstock

GDP contribution of agriculture sector and agriculture population dependent on agric and hence the imbalance in Kenya. Show disparity in worker productivity between the sectors

Kenya’s 2009 National Land Policy emphasizes the need to allocate and use land in an economically viable, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable way. About 20% of land in Kenya is arable and with the current population of about 40 million, the population is expected to grow by 2050 up to 55 million further increasing pressure on land. Traditions, customs and formal succession laws promote and regulate the transfer of property from one generation to another (FAO, 2003). Land control Act in Kenya does not define the minimum land size considered economically viable. The Act creates Land Control Boards to determine the viable land sizes (Odhiambo, 2013).

• Questions:

-What is the size of arable land in Kenya?

-What gaps existing laws and policies in addressing land sustainability?

-What social, political and economic practices impact negatively on land productivity and tenure?

-What are current trends in land use in Kenya

References

-These smallholdings however show lower per capita productivity and the incidence of poverty is widespread.

-Strategies for Indian agriculture and smallholding households should include reducing the inequality in land distribution and promoting off-farm work in the rural areas itself.

- They highlight the dynamics of the debate which now captures the changing market place i.e. technological change, liberalisation, commercialisation and further divisions of landholdings.

-The overall productivity of a farm depends on the use of yield enhancing inputs like fertiliser, access to irrigation, technology, crop intensity and choice of crops (crop pattern) grown at the farm.

-Smallholder were using high amounts of inputs (we can attribute this to degraded soil health) -Ramesh’s conclusions were flawed since they made conclusions in favour of smallholding yet the data they used to analyse productivity were not interoperable

-even though their results clearly indicate the inverse relationship

Between farm size and land productivity. Per capita output is low on smallholdings despite higher productivity due to lower per capita availability of