| dc.description.abstract | This study examines the link between environmental conservation practices and
agricultural productivity in a fragile ecological environment in Kajiado district, Kenya.
The study was carried out against the background of growing concern that declining
agricultural productivity and increasing poverty are a cause as well as a consequence of
environmental degradation. The study sought to explore mechanisms for escaping from a
poverty trap where poverty leads to increased resource degradation, which in turn leads to
low productivity and to more poverty.
The study uses panel data to examine the nexus between environmental capital, farm
productivity and profitability for the period 1998-2000. Both descriptive and econometric
procedures are employed to that end. Descriptive statistics indicate that 69% of the
respondents held land under private property, while the rest farmed crops and grazed
livestock under common property regimes. About 43% of farmers engaged in at least one
environmental conservation practice, while 59% of all herders migrated both in search of
pasture and water, and to give overgrazed pastures time to recover. The data further
shows that land conservation is more likely under private property than under communal
tenure systems.
Property rights, availability of labour, livestock ownership, and perceptions concerning
the value of environmental conservation are the most important determinants of adoption
of land and environmental conservation practices. All forms of environmental
conservation practices exert positive impacts on farm productivity. In addition, property
rights, land ownership, technology, and availability of biomass at the village level are
important determinants of productivity per acre. Our simulation results confirm the
importance of well-specified property rights, environmental conservation and increased
biomass on productivity. Moreover, favourable policy changes in these variables reduce
poverty.
This study shows that environmental conservation practices reduce poverty through
increased agricultural production. Provision of incentives for environmental conservation
is the first step towards poverty reduction in the district. In contrast to earlier studies, our
results suggest the need to speed up privatization of group land in order to encourage
adoption of environmental conservation and increase farm productivity and household
welfare. Other important policy implications include making labour markets more
competitive, educating producers on the benefits of environmental conservation and
about the need to conserve biomass. | en |
