Abstract:
The LDSB schemes of 1961/62 formed the second phase and a
continuation of the official colonial agricultural policy (Swynnerton
Plan of 1954). However, the political situation in the immediate pre
independence period derailed its implementation as the Land
Development and Settlement Board (LDSB) was disbanded on June 1st
1963 and replaced with the Central Land Board. It is the Central Land
Board that supported the implementation of five-year 'one-million-acre’
schemes for the land purchase in the former ‘scheduled’ areas. From this
background, the paper examines how the colonial agricultural policy
initiated in 1954 continues to serve as the main agricultural policy in
independent Kenya today. Yet, policymakers can re-engineer a new
appropriate agricultural policy to promote economic development in the
21st century. Thus, the study sheds light on the legacy of colonial
agricultural policy in independent Kenya by examining a pioneering
LDSB scheme in the Ndalat Settlement Scheme in Nandi County,
Kenya. The paper adopts a historical descriptive design with a sample
size of 30 key informants conveniently sampled from 16 farmers, four
cooperative society officials, five pioneering settlement officials, two
Ministry of Agriculture officials, and three retired agricultural officers.
The interview was the main research instrument supplemented by
archival and government policy documents. The findings indicated that
all the LDSB schemes were part of the colonial agricultural policy to
reduce the pressure on land resources and were experimental in design.
This colonial agricultural policy is credited with settlement programs,
large-scale agricultural development, commercialization of food crops,
and the institutionalization of producer cooperatives and statutory
marketing boards. The study concluded that this colonial policy still
dominates agricultural development in independent Kenya today. The
study recommends that there is a need to revamp the agricultural policy
to support the socio-economic development in Kenya.
