| dc.description.abstract | It is necessary for development to be
undertaken on sustainable basis. Such a development
process should take from the environment as much and
as fast as the environment is able to renew itself. It
should be fitted within the ecological and the socioeconomic
spheres of the relevant environment. When and
where any development activity is undertaken this way,
unnecessary expenses -both in ecological and economic
terms- would be averted.
Large-scale coffee production in Kiambaa
division is not self-sustaining. This is in respect to
the fact that it takes from the environment more than
the environment is capable of renewing itself, making
it necessary for the introduction and application of
vast amounts of chemicals -fertilizers, pest and weed
killers. As a consequence to this, the end result is
a poisoned environment which not only affects
(adversely) - physical environmental attributes (soils
vegetation, water resources and environmental
aesthetic component), but also employees and Local
households who live and work within the relevant
environment. In addition to this, coffee production in
the estates is not sustainable in the sense that it
does not enable employees to adequately meet basic
needs.
The study appraises coffee production practices
with the aim of evaluating both environmental and
social economic impacts that they pose to the
environment in the study area. The study employs
Environmental Impact Assessment methodology and other
normal statistical tools to evaluate environmental and
socio-economic impacts respectively.
Using data collected in the field, the study
established important and significant impacts most of
which affected both the physical and socio-economic
environments adversely, while some could be termed
beneficial.
In cognizance to these findings, the study
recommends a revisit of environmental policies to
encompass policies on what production practices should
be adopted. Secondly, the study recommends the
inclusion to land acquisition policies, the provision
of ceiling on the amount of land an individual should
own. Through this way, production in the estates would
be diversified from being basically monocultural to
being multi-crop farming on one hand, and would enable
the return of the estates' lands to the peasants who
once owned them, on the other . | en_US |
