| dc.description.abstract |
Land is the main asset in agricultural
production and generally, limited availability of productive
land is a major constraint to increased agricultural
production and by extension food and nutritional security.
The main feature of Kenya’s agriculture is domination of
small-scale farmers who account for over 75% of total
agricultural production. Production is carried out on small
land holdings averaging 2-3 hectares. Due to increasing
population pressure on agricultural land, plantation forest
under the plantation establishment and livelihoods support
(PELIS) formerly Shamba System, has been an effective
method of providing land to landless forest neighboring
farmers. However there has been a concern that the system
leads to destruction of forests through inadequate
supervision by the Kenya Forest Service. This study
therefore aimed at examining the benefits of this system of
forest plantation establishment. Data on farming costs,
revenue and socio-economic conditions were collected from
the farmers. Net present value approach was used in
investigating the financial benefit of the Shamba system to
the forestland farmers. Linear programming crop-and-area
allocation model was developed for examining ways of
optimizing food production and income from the forest over
a 30 - year period. Results show that Shamba system has a
positive net financial return. The results suggest that the
Shamba system is a viable activity and is of benefit to the
forestland farmers. |
en_US |