Land-Use Change and Livestock Production Challenges in an Integrated System: The Masai-Mara Ecosystem, Kenya
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Date
2009Author
Nyariki, D. M
Mwang'ombe, AW
Thompson, D. M.
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Participatory rural appraisal techniques and a survey of 100 households were used to evaluate livestock production, and pastoral development of the Maasai in Mara. It was observed that patterns of land-use have principally changed from nomadic pastoralism to sedentary pastoralism, agropastoralism, and, in some cases, pure cultivation. These trends have adversely affected livestock production and the productive capacity of the Mara ecosystem. Diminishing grazing area occasioned by expanding cropping patterns has negatively impacted on vegetation resources and the biodiversity of the ecosystem. It has also increased the intensity of conflict over diminishing land resources. Because the production system is largely subsistence with a strong livestock base, it is further undermined by, among other factors, animal diseases, water scarcity, land individualisation, poor marketing infrastructure, and livestock/wildlife conflicts. Based on the findings of the present study, development approaches need to emphasise
integrated livestock and wildlife utilisation, land tenure reforms that embody livestock mobility as a key strategy of optimising the use of transient forage resources, disease control, and development of livestock marketing.
Citation
J Hum Ecol, 26(3): 163-173 (2009)Publisher
Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection
Subject
COMMERCIALIZATION OF PASTORAL PRODUCTIONKENYA’S SEMI-ARID LANDS
INTEGRATED LAND MANAGEMENT
LIVELIHOODS
PASTORAL DEVELOPMENT
MASAI MARA