Farmers' knowledge and perceptions of soil erosion and conservation measures in the Central Highlands, Kenya

A lack of appreciation of Kenyan farmers' knowledge and their perceptions of soil erosion and soil conservation measures was the reason for low adoption of recommended technologies. This research was carried out to identify the criteria that farmers used to distinguish farm-types and to use these types to evaluate different knowledge levels and perceptions of soil erosion and existing soil and water conservation (SWC) measures in the Central Highlands of Kenya. Community meetings and semi-structured household surveys were carried out in a small catchment, with 120 households. Results partly support the idea of using farmer-developed criteria to distinguish among land managers with reference to a farm-type classification. Criteria distinguishing three classes of land managers (good, moderate and poor) were significant with regard to the following land husbandry practices: use of hybrid or recycled seed and use of organic and/or inorganic fertilizers. Farmers were aware of ongoing soil erosion and of several erosion control measures. Whereas a majority of farmers preferred grass-strips as a SWC measures, they did not recognize agroforestry as a form of SWC measure. Farmers perceived that SWC measures could successfully increase crop yields and soil-water retention, and increase land value. In general, farmers did not perceive that SWC measures successfully prevented erosion phenomena, given the evidence of on-site erosion indicators. They attributed the continued erosion to high rainfall, steep slopes, lack of maintenance and poorly designed SWC measures. They did not consider poor soil-cover, up-down tillage and tall trees to be the causes of erosion. Farmers faced several constraints in adopting SWC measures: lack of labour, tools, capital and know-how to construct the measures. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.