Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi

A Workshop on Soil and Water Conservation was held at the University of Nairobi from 2l to 23 September 1977, sponsored by the Land and Farm Management Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Departments of Agricultural Engineering of the University and Egerton College. The objectives of this workshop were:- 1. To bring together research workers, teachers, extension officers and others who are concerned with problems of soil and water conservation, 2. To exchange technical information and discuss problems in assessing needs and in planning, implementing and evaluating conservation systems, and 3. To identify priorities for research and to seek ways to increase the effectiveness and relevance of teaching. In keeping with these objectives, a number of papers were presented at the workshop and are included in full in this report. Topics covered include, among others, experiments with various cropping systems and tillage methods to determine which patterns of land use minimise soil loss methods for reclaiming swampy or badly eroding land, studies of small experimental catchment areas, the physical and social problems involved in carrying out conservation programmes in semi-arid areas, and the Ministry of Agriculture's plans for a major soil and water conservation programme. In addition to these discussions, field trips were conducted to Machakos and Murang'a which are described in this report, and a list of recommendations was drafted which is also included.