Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://localhost:80/jspui/handle/123456789/571
Title: The Diffusion of Social Forestry in Semi-Arid areas: a case study in Kitui District, Kenya
Authors: Kaudia, Alice A.
Keywords: Social Forestry
semi-arid areas
Kitui
Issue Date: Jan-1996
Publisher: University of East Anglia
Abstract: Resource poor small scale farmers are commonly target groups for rural development projects and social forestry is no exception. However the concept 'small scale farmers' masks the heterogeneity of rural farmers. This heterogeneity has important implications for technology generation and dissemination policies that could enhance social forestry technology adoption by farmers, and hence the diffusion of social forestry innovations. This research set out to identify the social and economic factors that influence the diffusion of social forestry innovations in semi-arid areas. The household was adopted as the unit of analysis. The goal and specific objectives of the research were pursued against a background of current discussions that are advocating reforms of institutional policies for social forestry technology generation and dissemination. The advocated changes seek to increase levels of participation by farmers in the generation and dissemination of social forestry innovations. This presumes that the participation of farmers in these processes will enhance the diffusion of social forestry innovations. However, in semi-arid areas where agro-ecological conditions constrain optimal biological productivity of trees in the short run, the need to sustain livelihoods can undermine adoption of technically profitable innovations. For this reason, the social and economic status of households has important implications for adoption and diffusion of social forestry innovations in marginal areas of developing countries. This research was based in the Central Division of the Kitui District in Eastern Kenya. The district has diverse agro-ecological conditions, but broadly the Eastern part is largely a pastoral zone whereas the Western part is predominantly a mixed farming zone and it is in this mixed farming zone that field work for this research was undertaken. The institutional context of generation and dissemination of social forestry innovations was examined as a background to understanding the congruency between approaches of projects in social forestry dissemination and social forestry information and knowledge acquisition by farmers. The research defined tree species and their cultivation as the social forestry innovations. It then focused on analysis of the differences between ranked preferences of the species by farmers and farmers' methods of integrating the preferred species into the farming system. The survey households were categorised by: (i) gender of head of household, (ii) wealth status of household, (iii) availability of family labour, (iv) history of household settlement on the land, (v)'ownership' of land, (vi) area of land operated, and (vii) affiliation of a member of the household with a women's group. The main fmdings of this research are: (i) that area of land owned does have important implications for the intensification of on-farm cultivation of trees as well as farmers' adaptive strategies for meeting their needs for tree product deficiencies, (ii) that ownership of land in terms of social status of land owner seems to influence the types of trees that are grown by particular households, (iii) that farmers perceive their own experience and information from their neighbours as the main sources of social forestry skills. The policy implications of these findings for social forestry research and extension are discussed in detail in the text. Broadly, the findings suggest a need for social forestry projects to adopt collegial farmer participatory approaches to enhance adoption of innovations by poorer farmers.
URI: http://10.10.20.22:8080//handle/123456789/571
Appears in Collections:Thesis and Dissertation

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