Challenges And Opportunities Of Land Tenure And Land Sub-Division Trends On Rice Production In Irrigation Schemes In Kenya
Abstract
With an ever-increasing population and erratic weather patterns threatening food
security, there is need to focus on increasing production of staples such as rice.in the
large scale rice schemes. Globally, rice is one of the most important food crops used
in the fight against hunger. Rice consumption in Kenya has been increasing annually
at a rate of 12% but, despite the huge production potential in the country, there has
been little growth in its production leading to a deficit of 255,000 metric tons
annually. One of the factors leading to the fluctuation in the production of rice is
attributed to issues related to land especially in terms of tenure and size. This study,
investigated the influence of land tenure and land subdivision trends on rice
production in rice irrigation schemes in Kenya, using the Mwea Rice Irrigation
Scheme as a case study. The specific objectives were to examine the land tenure
evolution in the last 50 years and the corresponding effect on rice production, assess
the influence of household land tenancy on rice production, establish the influence of
farmers’ land size on rice production, establish the land-based challenges influencing
rice production, and propose land tenure, land size and technological strategies that
can be adopted to ensure optimal rice production in Mwea Irrigation Scheme. A
Cross-Sectional study design was used. A total of 167 households selected from the
rice producers in the study area were interviewed using a semi-structured
questionnaire. Five in-depth key informants interviews were also conducted using
unstructured interview guides. Related literature was also examined. The findings
revealed that all the rice irrigation scheme land belongs to the government and is
administered by NIB. Farmers are tenants and are required to grow only rice and no
other crop. This is positive for rice production and is a policy that should continue to
avoid change of rice land to other uses. There have been complaints on how land
administration is conducted but this is being corrected through the management by the
multipurpose cooperative. Each farmer was initially allocated 4 acres of land.
Considering the minimum requirement of Kshs. 195,020 to sustain an average
household of 5 persons, only 1.5 acres is required. The four acres can therefore
sustain 2.5 households if farmed optimally. The challenge of land size, however, is
that households have increased and although it is illegal to sub-divide the land, this
has been done to some extent but informally. The rate of this informal sub-division
v
stands at 7% calculated by current average land size versus the land issued at the intial
stage. The rate is fairly small and this is attributed to the close monitoring of land use
and ownership by the NIB management. The sub-division among heirs reduces the
per capita land unit for farming hence total production. Further sub-division can be
stopped by expanding the irrigation land so that new households that wish to be full
time rice farmers are given their own 2 acres to farm in new blocks. When the initial
registered farmer is no longer able to farm, the 4 acres should be given to only two
heirs in the family to continue farming. If no family member is interested in farming,
the land should revert to NIB for allocation to other interested new farmer-tenants.
Other identified challenges to rice farming include insufficient water, poor rice
varieties, inadequate management and technical capacity, low capacity of processing
facilities, poor research support, and unfair competition from imports. Although there
have been some institutional conflicts, the government should intervene in all the
challenges for the sake of food and livelihood security.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5964]
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