Determinants of Tree Planting and Cover Retention in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas of East Africa: The Case of Machakos County, Kenya
Keywords:
Degradation, natural resources, livelihoods, tree cover, climate change
Abstract
Rapid human population growth, increased demand for land, overexploitation and the degradation of local natural resources have led to serious socio-economic and environmental challenges in Machakos County, Kenya, East Africa. This has led to a drastic reduction in tree cover in arid and semiarid areas over the years. To reverse this trend it is important to understand the socio-economic factors that determine household tree planting and cover retention in Machakos County. Based on a structured questionnaire targeting 412 respondents as well as focus group discussions and key informants, we assessed the determinants of tree planting cover retention using a logistic regression model. The study found that socioeconomic variables that significantly influenced tree cover adoption in Machakos County in Kenya included gender (p=0.011), household size (p=0.030), and title deed ownership (p=0.023). The respondents used tree products to enhance their socio-economic resilience. In total, 58 different types of tree species were planted or retained on the farms. The major tree species included Eucalyptus saligna, Grevillea robusta, Mangifera indica, Persea americana, Croton megalocarpus, and Terminalia brownie. Based on our findings we recommend more involvement of women and youth in tree planting activities in Matungulu Sub-county.
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Metrics
Metrics Loading ...
References
1. Ali, A. & Rahut, D. B. (2018). Forest-based livelihoods, income, and
poverty: Empirical evidence from the Himalayan region of rural
Pakistan. Journal of Rural Studies Volume 57, January 2018, pp. 44-
54.
2. Angelsen, A., Jagger, P., Babigumira, R., Belcher, B., Hogarth, N. J.,
Bauch, S., Börner,
3. J., Smith-Hall, C. & Wunder, S. (2014). Environmental Income and
Rural Livelihoods: A Global-Comparative Analysis. World
Development Volume 64, Supplement 1, December 2014, pp. S12-
S28.
4. De Leeuw, J., Njenga, M., Wagner, B. & Iiyama, M. (Eds.) (2014).
Treesilience: An assessment of the resilience provided by trees in the
drylands of Eastern Africa. World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi,
Kenya.
5. Deressa, T. T., Hassan, R. M., Ringler, C., Alemu, T. & Yesuf, M.
(2009). Determinants of farmers’ choice of adaptation methods to
climate change in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia. Global environmental
change, 19(2), pp. 248-255.
6. Ekanayake, E. M. B. P., Feng, M., Murindahabi, T., Nissanka, A. H.
S. & Patrick, G. S. (2018). Contribution of Indian Gooseberry
(Phyllanthus emblica) to Household Economy in Sri Lanka: A Case
Study from Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat. Small scale forestry,
June 2018 Volume 17, Issue 2 pp. 277 – 292.
7. Etongo, D., Epule, T. E., Djenontin, I. N. S. & Kanninen, M.
(2018). Land managementin rural Burkina Faso: the role of socio‐
cultural and institutional factors. Natural Resources Forum,
Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK.
8. Guetterman, T. C., Fetters, M. D. & Creswell, J. W. (2015).
Integrating quantitative and qualitative results in health sciencemixed methods research through joint displays. The Annals of Family
Medicine, 13(6), 554-561.
9. Guo, G., Wen, Q. & Zhu, J. (2015). The impact of aging agricultural
labor population on farmland output: from the perspective of farmer
preferences. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2015.
10. Gyau, A., Franzel, S., Chiatoh, M., Nimino, G. & Owusu, K. (2014).
Collective action to improve market access for smallholder producers
of agroforestry products: key lessons learned with insights from
Cameroon's experience. Current Opinion in Environmental
Sustainability, 6, pp. 68-72.
11. Hadi, A. L. A., Wahab, N. A. A., Noh, N. A. M., Razali, N. M.,
Yusop, N. M., Khairudin, Z. & Othman, R. (2018, June).
Determinants of depression among tertiary level students: A logistic
regression approach. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 1974, No.
1, p. 050007). AIP Publishing.
12. Insaidoo, T. F. G., Derkyl, M. & Acheampong, E. (2014). Farm level
tree planting in Ghana Potential for reducing vulnerability and
mitigating climate change. JENRM N0. 1, pp. 19-28.
13. Kaakkurivaara, N. & Stampfer, K. (2018). Assessment for
Improvement: Harvesting Operations in Small-Scale Forest on Thai
Steep Terrain. Small scale forestry, June 2018 Volume 17, Issue 2,
pp. 277 – 292.
14. KNBS (2018) Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Kenya Integrated
Household Budget Survey (2017/2018), Government Printer,
Nairobi, Kenya.
15. Kiptot, E. & Franzel, S. (2011). Gender and Agroforestry in Africa:
Are Women Participating. Occasional Paper, World Agroforestry
Center, Nairobi, Kenya.
16. Kothari, C.R. (2004). Research Methodology Methods and
Techniques. 2nd Edition, New Age International Publishers, New
Delhi.
17. Kristjanson, P., Bryan, E., Bernier, Q., Twyman, J., Meinzen-Dick,
R., Kieran, C. & Doss, C. (2017). Addressing gender in agricultural
research for development in the face of a changing climate: where are
we and where should we be going? International Journal of
Agricultural Sustainability, 15(5), 482-500.
18. Lawin, K. G. & Tamini, L. D. (2018). Land Tenure Differences and
Adoption of Agri-Environmental Practices: Evidence from Benin.
The Journal of Development Studies, pp. 1-14.
19. Machakos County Government. (2015). Machakos County Integrated
Development Plan. Machakos, Kenya.20. Macneil, C., Brown, H. C. P. & Sonwa, D. J. (2017). Investigations
of the Livelihood Strategies of Young Men and Women in Forested
Landscapes of Eastern Cameroon. International Forestry Review
19(4): pp 437- 448.
21. Masuki, K. F. G., Kamugisha, R., Mowo, J. G., Tanui, J., Tukahirwa,
J. Mogoi, J. & Adera, E. O. (2010). Role of mobile phones in
improving communication and information delivery for agricultural
development: Lessons from South Western Uganda. Workshop
proceedings, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, pp. 22-23.
22. Mburu, B. K. (2013). Effects of climate variability and change on
dry-land agriculture and the adaptation strategies by small-scale
farmers in Yatta District, Kenya. PhD thesis, Kenyatta University,
Nairobi, Kenya.
23. Meijer, S. S., Catacutan, D., Ajayi, O. C., Sileshi, G. W. &
Nieuwenhuis, M. (2015). The role of knowledge, attitudes and
perceptions in the uptake of agricultural and agroforestry innovations
among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.International
Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 13.
24. MENR (2006). Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources.
Forest Department annual Report for Kangundo District.
Unpublished Report
25. Muriu-Ng’ang’a, F. W. (2017). Utilisation of selected rainwater
harvesting and saving technologies for improved crop production in
Tharaka South Sub-county, Kenya. Ph.D Thesis, Kenyatta
University, Nairobi, Kenya.
26. Nkamleu, G. B. & Manyong, V. M. (2005). Factors affecting the
adoption of agroforestry practices by farmers in Cameroon. Smallscale forest economics, management and policy, 4(2) pp. 135-148.
27. Permadi, D. B., Burton, M., Pandit, R., Race, D., Ma, C., Mendham,
D. & Hardiyanto, E. B. (2018). Socio-economic factors affecting the
rate of adoption of acacia plantations by smallholders in Indonesia.
Land use policy Vol 76 July 2018, pp. 215-223.
28. Quandt, A., Neufeldt, H. & McCabe, J. T. (2018). Building
livelihood resilience: what role does agroforestry play? Climate and
Development. doi.org/10.1080/ 17565529.2018.1447903.
29. Shiferaw, S. T., Frédéric, B., Hae, K. & Giller, K. (2017). Climatesmart agroforestry: Faidherbia albida trees buffer wheat against
climatic extremes in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. Agricultural
and Forest Meteorology. Doi.10.1016/j.agrformet. 2017.10.013.
30. Shrestha, S., Shrestha, U. B. & Bawa, K. (2018). Socio-economic
factors and management regimes as drivers of tree cover change in
Nepal. Peer J, 6, e4855.31. Simotwo, H. K., Stella, M., Mikalitsa, S. M. & Wambua, B. N.
(2018). Climate change adaptive capacity and smallholder farming
in Trans-Mara East Sub-county, Kenya. Geoenvironmental Disasters
5:5.
32. Siraj, M., Zhang, K., Xiao, W., Bilal, A., Gemechu, S., Geda, K.,
Yonas, T. & Xiaodan, L. (2018). Does Participatory Forest
Management Save the Remnant Forest in Ethiopia? In Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological
Sciences 88 (1), pp. 1–14.
33. Singh, C. (2018). Adoption of Agroforestry Practices: Chi 2 Function
Approach in Determining Influence of Individual and Social Factors
on Farmers' Decision to Adopt or not to Adopt Agroforestry. Indian
Forester, 144 (7), 646-652.
34. Survey of Kenya, (2018). Map of Machakos County and its position
in Kenya. County Survey Office, Machakos, Kenya.
35. Trinh, T. Q., Rañola, R. F., Camacho, L. D. & Simelton, E. (2018).
Determinants of farmers’ adaptation to climate change in agricultural
production in the central region of Vietnam. Land use policy, 70. pp.
224-231.
36. Verkaart, S., Orr, A., Harris, D. & Claessens, L. (2017). Intensify or
diversify? Agriculture as a pathway from poverty in eastern Kenya,
Socioeconomics Discussion PaperSeries, Series Paper Number 40
http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/9937.
37. Wambua, S., Birachi, E., Gichangi, A., Kavoi, J., Njuki, J., Mutua,
M. & Karanja, D. (2018). Influence of productive resources on bean
production in male-and female-headed households in selected bean
corridors of Kenya. Agriculture & Food Security, 7(1), 85.
38. Wunder, S., Angelsen, A. & Belcher, B. (2014). Forests, Livelihoods,
and Conservation: Broadening the Empirical Base. World
Development Volume 64, Supplement 1, December 2014, Pages S1-
S11https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.03.007, March 2016.
39. Wyche, S., Simiyu, N. & Othieno, M. E. (2017). Understanding
women’s mobile phone use in rural Kenya: An affordance-based
approach. Mobile Media & Communication.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157918776684.
40. Zomer, R. J., Neufeldt, H., Xu, J. C., Ahrends, A., Bossio, D.,
Trabucco, A., van Noordwijk, M. & Wang, M. (2016). Global tree
cover and biomass carbon on agricultural land: The contribution of
agroforestry to global and national carbon budgets.
http://www.worldagroforestry.otg/ publications/.
poverty: Empirical evidence from the Himalayan region of rural
Pakistan. Journal of Rural Studies Volume 57, January 2018, pp. 44-
54.
2. Angelsen, A., Jagger, P., Babigumira, R., Belcher, B., Hogarth, N. J.,
Bauch, S., Börner,
3. J., Smith-Hall, C. & Wunder, S. (2014). Environmental Income and
Rural Livelihoods: A Global-Comparative Analysis. World
Development Volume 64, Supplement 1, December 2014, pp. S12-
S28.
4. De Leeuw, J., Njenga, M., Wagner, B. & Iiyama, M. (Eds.) (2014).
Treesilience: An assessment of the resilience provided by trees in the
drylands of Eastern Africa. World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi,
Kenya.
5. Deressa, T. T., Hassan, R. M., Ringler, C., Alemu, T. & Yesuf, M.
(2009). Determinants of farmers’ choice of adaptation methods to
climate change in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia. Global environmental
change, 19(2), pp. 248-255.
6. Ekanayake, E. M. B. P., Feng, M., Murindahabi, T., Nissanka, A. H.
S. & Patrick, G. S. (2018). Contribution of Indian Gooseberry
(Phyllanthus emblica) to Household Economy in Sri Lanka: A Case
Study from Udadumbara Divisional Secretariat. Small scale forestry,
June 2018 Volume 17, Issue 2 pp. 277 – 292.
7. Etongo, D., Epule, T. E., Djenontin, I. N. S. & Kanninen, M.
(2018). Land managementin rural Burkina Faso: the role of socio‐
cultural and institutional factors. Natural Resources Forum,
Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK.
8. Guetterman, T. C., Fetters, M. D. & Creswell, J. W. (2015).
Integrating quantitative and qualitative results in health sciencemixed methods research through joint displays. The Annals of Family
Medicine, 13(6), 554-561.
9. Guo, G., Wen, Q. & Zhu, J. (2015). The impact of aging agricultural
labor population on farmland output: from the perspective of farmer
preferences. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2015.
10. Gyau, A., Franzel, S., Chiatoh, M., Nimino, G. & Owusu, K. (2014).
Collective action to improve market access for smallholder producers
of agroforestry products: key lessons learned with insights from
Cameroon's experience. Current Opinion in Environmental
Sustainability, 6, pp. 68-72.
11. Hadi, A. L. A., Wahab, N. A. A., Noh, N. A. M., Razali, N. M.,
Yusop, N. M., Khairudin, Z. & Othman, R. (2018, June).
Determinants of depression among tertiary level students: A logistic
regression approach. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 1974, No.
1, p. 050007). AIP Publishing.
12. Insaidoo, T. F. G., Derkyl, M. & Acheampong, E. (2014). Farm level
tree planting in Ghana Potential for reducing vulnerability and
mitigating climate change. JENRM N0. 1, pp. 19-28.
13. Kaakkurivaara, N. & Stampfer, K. (2018). Assessment for
Improvement: Harvesting Operations in Small-Scale Forest on Thai
Steep Terrain. Small scale forestry, June 2018 Volume 17, Issue 2,
pp. 277 – 292.
14. KNBS (2018) Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Kenya Integrated
Household Budget Survey (2017/2018), Government Printer,
Nairobi, Kenya.
15. Kiptot, E. & Franzel, S. (2011). Gender and Agroforestry in Africa:
Are Women Participating. Occasional Paper, World Agroforestry
Center, Nairobi, Kenya.
16. Kothari, C.R. (2004). Research Methodology Methods and
Techniques. 2nd Edition, New Age International Publishers, New
Delhi.
17. Kristjanson, P., Bryan, E., Bernier, Q., Twyman, J., Meinzen-Dick,
R., Kieran, C. & Doss, C. (2017). Addressing gender in agricultural
research for development in the face of a changing climate: where are
we and where should we be going? International Journal of
Agricultural Sustainability, 15(5), 482-500.
18. Lawin, K. G. & Tamini, L. D. (2018). Land Tenure Differences and
Adoption of Agri-Environmental Practices: Evidence from Benin.
The Journal of Development Studies, pp. 1-14.
19. Machakos County Government. (2015). Machakos County Integrated
Development Plan. Machakos, Kenya.20. Macneil, C., Brown, H. C. P. & Sonwa, D. J. (2017). Investigations
of the Livelihood Strategies of Young Men and Women in Forested
Landscapes of Eastern Cameroon. International Forestry Review
19(4): pp 437- 448.
21. Masuki, K. F. G., Kamugisha, R., Mowo, J. G., Tanui, J., Tukahirwa,
J. Mogoi, J. & Adera, E. O. (2010). Role of mobile phones in
improving communication and information delivery for agricultural
development: Lessons from South Western Uganda. Workshop
proceedings, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, pp. 22-23.
22. Mburu, B. K. (2013). Effects of climate variability and change on
dry-land agriculture and the adaptation strategies by small-scale
farmers in Yatta District, Kenya. PhD thesis, Kenyatta University,
Nairobi, Kenya.
23. Meijer, S. S., Catacutan, D., Ajayi, O. C., Sileshi, G. W. &
Nieuwenhuis, M. (2015). The role of knowledge, attitudes and
perceptions in the uptake of agricultural and agroforestry innovations
among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.International
Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 13.
24. MENR (2006). Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources.
Forest Department annual Report for Kangundo District.
Unpublished Report
25. Muriu-Ng’ang’a, F. W. (2017). Utilisation of selected rainwater
harvesting and saving technologies for improved crop production in
Tharaka South Sub-county, Kenya. Ph.D Thesis, Kenyatta
University, Nairobi, Kenya.
26. Nkamleu, G. B. & Manyong, V. M. (2005). Factors affecting the
adoption of agroforestry practices by farmers in Cameroon. Smallscale forest economics, management and policy, 4(2) pp. 135-148.
27. Permadi, D. B., Burton, M., Pandit, R., Race, D., Ma, C., Mendham,
D. & Hardiyanto, E. B. (2018). Socio-economic factors affecting the
rate of adoption of acacia plantations by smallholders in Indonesia.
Land use policy Vol 76 July 2018, pp. 215-223.
28. Quandt, A., Neufeldt, H. & McCabe, J. T. (2018). Building
livelihood resilience: what role does agroforestry play? Climate and
Development. doi.org/10.1080/ 17565529.2018.1447903.
29. Shiferaw, S. T., Frédéric, B., Hae, K. & Giller, K. (2017). Climatesmart agroforestry: Faidherbia albida trees buffer wheat against
climatic extremes in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. Agricultural
and Forest Meteorology. Doi.10.1016/j.agrformet. 2017.10.013.
30. Shrestha, S., Shrestha, U. B. & Bawa, K. (2018). Socio-economic
factors and management regimes as drivers of tree cover change in
Nepal. Peer J, 6, e4855.31. Simotwo, H. K., Stella, M., Mikalitsa, S. M. & Wambua, B. N.
(2018). Climate change adaptive capacity and smallholder farming
in Trans-Mara East Sub-county, Kenya. Geoenvironmental Disasters
5:5.
32. Siraj, M., Zhang, K., Xiao, W., Bilal, A., Gemechu, S., Geda, K.,
Yonas, T. & Xiaodan, L. (2018). Does Participatory Forest
Management Save the Remnant Forest in Ethiopia? In Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological
Sciences 88 (1), pp. 1–14.
33. Singh, C. (2018). Adoption of Agroforestry Practices: Chi 2 Function
Approach in Determining Influence of Individual and Social Factors
on Farmers' Decision to Adopt or not to Adopt Agroforestry. Indian
Forester, 144 (7), 646-652.
34. Survey of Kenya, (2018). Map of Machakos County and its position
in Kenya. County Survey Office, Machakos, Kenya.
35. Trinh, T. Q., Rañola, R. F., Camacho, L. D. & Simelton, E. (2018).
Determinants of farmers’ adaptation to climate change in agricultural
production in the central region of Vietnam. Land use policy, 70. pp.
224-231.
36. Verkaart, S., Orr, A., Harris, D. & Claessens, L. (2017). Intensify or
diversify? Agriculture as a pathway from poverty in eastern Kenya,
Socioeconomics Discussion PaperSeries, Series Paper Number 40
http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/9937.
37. Wambua, S., Birachi, E., Gichangi, A., Kavoi, J., Njuki, J., Mutua,
M. & Karanja, D. (2018). Influence of productive resources on bean
production in male-and female-headed households in selected bean
corridors of Kenya. Agriculture & Food Security, 7(1), 85.
38. Wunder, S., Angelsen, A. & Belcher, B. (2014). Forests, Livelihoods,
and Conservation: Broadening the Empirical Base. World
Development Volume 64, Supplement 1, December 2014, Pages S1-
S11https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.03.007, March 2016.
39. Wyche, S., Simiyu, N. & Othieno, M. E. (2017). Understanding
women’s mobile phone use in rural Kenya: An affordance-based
approach. Mobile Media & Communication.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157918776684.
40. Zomer, R. J., Neufeldt, H., Xu, J. C., Ahrends, A., Bossio, D.,
Trabucco, A., van Noordwijk, M. & Wang, M. (2016). Global tree
cover and biomass carbon on agricultural land: The contribution of
agroforestry to global and national carbon budgets.
http://www.worldagroforestry.otg/ publications/.
Published
2023-02-16
How to Cite
Mutuku, H. M., & Kiruki, H. M. (2023). Determinants of Tree Planting and Cover Retention in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas of East Africa: The Case of Machakos County, Kenya. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 14, 183. Retrieved from https://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/16440
Section
ESI Preprints
Copyright (c) 2023 Heeran M. Mutuku, Harun M. Kiruki
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
.jpg)
