| dc.description.abstract | This is an exploratory study to investigate the
implications of the expanding Coastal Tourism on food
production in Kwale district.
The study focuses on the emerging behavioural pa t t.exne
around major socio-economic factors of production
including land, labour, income and the market for farm
produce among the farmers and other stakeholders in the
tourist industry and their possible implications on
farming and other food production practices in Diani
Location of Kwale district. The units from which the
study population was obtained were the households in
Diani location.
In the light of various theories on Social Change and
Development, several aspects of tourism and agriculture
were investigated . Specifically, this study set out to
establish the:
(1) occupations and income levels among the local
people;
(2) market outlets for 'farm produce and the problems
faced in the market;
(3) emerging structure of land ownership and;
(4) emerging structure of family labour in terms of age
and sex.
v
It was established that tourism is the largest employing
sector in Diani location. Most labour was however
employed in sectors that are not directly related to this
industry.
The male children were found to spend most of their time
along the beach line and also around the market centres
not necessarily doing any work; a practice that had
negative affects on labour in the farms.
Majority of the households were not self-sufficient in
labour during the rain season. Data analysis shows a
strong relationship between output and the type of family
labour.
The effects of tourism on household income distribution
was found to influence farmers' cr-ophuabandr-y practices.
The analysis shows that the higher the income level the
higher the degree of farm modernisation as well as
output.
Emerging land use patterns have had negative effects on
the acreage under crop farming. Most of the beach land
has been taken away by speculative land developers and
the pressure on the remaining land where the residents
can practise agriculture is mounting.
Vl
Other resuits show that although land in most parts was
surveyed in the late 1960s, the local farmers complained
of a second survey that had reduced their land from 5 to
3 acres.
Cases of squatting and eviction were also reported. There
was no significant relationship between tourism and the
market for farm produce. Despi te the potential to
produce some foodstuffs for sale at the tourist hotels,
the local farmers were not active participants in the
formal tourist market.
Middlemen and a certain foreign owned farm; the Darad
Farm, had for instance excluded local farmers from
selling at the beach hotels. Thus, exploi tation by
middlemen and inadequate market outlets were problems
cited by most farmers.
The study recommends that:
(a) the government should evolve a clear policy on land
ownership in Diani location. The land registration
'process should be completed, and title deeds given
to the residents to enable them invest in their
farms without fears of eviction. Residents evicted
from their farms by the Darad Farm and other
speculative land developers should be resettled and
compensated for the loss of property. In addition,
the on-going second survey should be nullified;
(b) the Ministry of Local Government should nullify the
allocation of public beach plots along Diani beach
to give the residents access to the Indian Ocean
where they can carry out fishing;
vii
(c) the local farmers should be encouraged
operative societies from which they
credit facilities to improve food
pract.i.ces and to which, they can sell
produce and;
to form cocan
enjoy
producticl1.
their farm
(d) the government should implement the recommendations
of the 1974 task force set to study the
possibili ties of establishing an intergrated
tourism development plan that would not compromise
on the existing socio-economic life aspects of the
local communities in Diani. | en |
