Proceedings of the social forestry extension seminar for the promotion of tree planting in arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya.

Abstract

The arid and semi~arid lands (ASALs) of Kenya are characterised by unfavourable climatic and socio-economic circumstances that have discouraged the proliferation of development projects in these areas for along time. As a result.of .increasing demographic pressure arid recent changes in Government policy, more emphasis has been' laid on participatory research and development initiatives in these areas. Examples of some of the first projects to be implemented in the· zone are the Agroforestry for Integrated. Development in Semi-;arid Areas of Kenya (ARIDSAK), the Dryland .Applied Research and' Extension .Project (DAREP) and the Social Forestry Extension Model Development (SOFEM) Projects. . ARIDSAK IS a bilaterally funded project undertaking by the Governments of Kenya and Belgium. The broad objectives of the project include; '..the. development, implementation and promotion of appropriate agricultural and agroforestry technologies ..' .that will improve the economic status of resource-poor farmers/pastoralists without adversely affecting the natural resource base; improvement of Research-Extension-Farmer linkages, and development of supportive policies for the adoption of new technologies in the ASALs. The Projects research and development (R&D) activities are geared towards the alleviation of production constraints in the area, enhancement of land productivity sustainable management of natural resources and improvement of income generation. Some.of the activities already accomplished since the inception of the project's pilot phase in September 1997 include sensitisation and creation of awareness.workshops; diagnostic surveys and establishment and management of on-farm and on station trials. The project currently works with over 100 "democratically and strategically' selected Model Farmers; 18 individual and group nurseries, and 18 schools in tree planting. It conducts on-station research in two sites (Kibwezi and Kiboko) and operates two research, training and development nurseries at Kibwezi and Mashuru. The nurseries have so far raised about 300,000 seedlings. As regards field establishment, 55 agroforestry tree species/provenances have been planted using over ten agroforestry technologies and the survival rate is severally rated at 55% and 89 on-farm, and on-station, respectively.