How food-rich land in Kajiado became barren

Mixed farming used to do well then. But with time, the harvest has been declining at an unprecedented and alarming rate due to the clearing of vegetation to pave way for farming.

“The trees and other vegetation cleared were used for charcoal, exposing us to soil erosion,” he says.

Mutisya, who hails from Lower Engariak Rongena in Loitokitok, says he initially used to harvest 35 bags of maize from an acre as well as 15 bags of beans.

Today, however, he can harvest less than 15 bags of maize in an acre and six bags of beans.

The bags of maize are of 90kg capacity, while the beans are of 100kg.

Mutisya says matters worsened after huge tracts of land were subdivided, paving the way for farming.

Initially, the original landowners used to have more than 3,000 acres.

“The vegetation that was cleared was used to produce charcoal,” he says.

Today, parts of the Loitoktok earth are hot and parched.

When it rains, raging floodwaters tear down trees and sweep away tonnes of soil from a grassland bereft of tree cover, save for the odd acacia tree.

The raging water leaves huge gullies ripping across the landscape.

Mutisya says the damage done to the vegetation cover saw the rains dwindle over time.

Today, whirlwinds are common, especially during the dry season.

We need to protect the soils by having terraces and also planting fodder to sustain our livestock

MASSIVE SOIL EROSION

When it rains, nearly all the top soils are washed away from his farm, with devastating impacts on his crop yield.

In fact, rains sometimes wash off his seeds and fertilisers.

Mutisya says the huge number of livestock has added to their misery.

“When we plant trees, livestock comes to eat them,” he says.

Mutisya says degradation has made seasonal rivers, such as Kimengelia, dry up.

He called for intervention to restore the degraded landscape.

“We need to protect the soils by having terraces and also planting fodder to sustain our livestock.”

Mutisya says farmers who have planted fruit trees, such as avocados and mangoes, have been able to protect their soils from being washed away.

The fruits also provided them with an alternative source of livelihood.

Fodder grass, he says, helps to sustain them every time the area has no fodder for livestock.

“We also need to plant trees along the springs and seasonal rivers,” he says.

The situation is no different in Irene Tingoya’s 15-acre land.

Tingoya has already erected terraces on her farm as one way of addressing the devastating degradation.

“The trenches have been very useful in trapping water and preventing the top soils from being washed away,” she says.

The retired IT officer grows maize, beans, paw paws and watermelon.

The changing weather patterns have, however, been giving her sleepless nights.

Tingoya says the drought has had devastating impacts as she sometimes barely harvests anything.

To worsen the situation, monkeys have been raiding her farm, destroying crops and in some cases threatening her.

Every time she tries to chase them, the monkeys despise her before continuing with their destruction.

CHANGING THE NARRATIVE

As farmers struggle, a new effort to restore the landscape has gained momentum.

Jackson Mumo has also adopted terraces on his farms.

“These are the terraces that World Wide Fund for Nature-Kenya has done for us by paying 50 per cent and I paid the other 50 per cent. We have partnered,” he says.

Mumo says they have been provided with Maasai love grass for planting to stabilise the soil and provide fodder for livestock.

The grass is set to be harvested in three months’ time.

Mumo says he will also be provided with fruit seeds among other trees that will conserve their water and soil.

Dr John Kioko, World Wide Fund for Nature Kenya coordinator for the Amboseli-Chyulu sub-landscape, says a lot of activities are lined up with a view to restoring degraded landscapes.

He is also the lead for a large-scale forest landscape restoration project.

Kioko said the viable restoration options in Kajiado are to be implemented directly on 5,000ha (more than 12,000 acres).

He said some 2,500ha is in Kajiado South subcounty.

“The restoration efforts are meant to bring back the productivity, biodiversity and support livelihoods, among many other roles that a habitat can play, such as carbon sequestration,” Kioko says.

Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

It is one method of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the goal of reducing global climate change.

In Kajiado, most farms are bare and when it rains, top soils are washed away.

In some cases, the rains wash off the seeds and fertilisers from farmlands.

Also, sand harvesting has made matters worse in some areas.

Kioko says gabions are urgently needed to stabilise river banks.

Trees must also be grown to help firm up the loose soils.

Kioko says the restoration efforts are further meant to bring back the resilience of the landscapes to support ecological functionality, which includes the health of the soil, to retain water, replenish carbon and support livelihoods.

Experts have repeatedly warned that the ongoing degradation in parts of the country threatens the livelihoods of millions of people, who depend on land ecosystem goods and services for their livelihoods.

Kioko says the fragile ecosystems like the dry lands of Kenya are the most vulnerable.

He said part of the plans is to restore some of the forests in the county.

Other initiatives include forest-compatible sources of livelihood, such as beekeeping by forest-adjacent communities.

CROP PRODUCTION

Kenya is an agricultural country, and with more than 12 million people living in areas with degraded lands, there is cause for concern.

The falling crop productivity and crop production over the last decade that lagged behind the demands of the fast-growing population has been attributed to degradation.

For example, over the period 1981–2003, productivity is reported to have declined across 40 per cent of croplands in the country, a critical situation in the context of a doubling of the human population.

On average, the productivity of the major cereal, maize, is less than 1 metric ton per hectare on most smallholder plots in the country.

The international community has rallied behind the restoration of degraded landscapes.

Through the Bonn Challenge, the global community pledged to restore 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.

Underlying the Bonn Challenge is the Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) approach, which aims to restore ecological integrity and improve human well-being through multifunctional landscapes.

As part of its contribution to the global effort to mitigate climate change, the Africa Continent, through AFRA A100, pledged 100 million hectares.

The Kenyan government has pledged to restore and reforest 5.1 million ha by 2030 as part of its commitment to global Forest Landscape restoration.

This is a drop in the ocean as there is 38.5 million ha of deforested and degraded lands in the country.

If implemented to the letter, the country stands to gain numerous economic benefits from the landscape restoration.

COSTLY AFFAIR

The Kenya Forest Research Institute says if the conservative scenario of 5.1 million ha is restored at a cost of Sh 1.8 trillion, the country will gain Sh7.6 trillion.

“The intermediate scenario and ambitious scenarios would generate economic benefits valued at Sh11.2 and Sh14.8 trillion respectively,” Kefri says.

The government provides funding to various public agencies for purposes of forest protection and conservation, including restoration efforts of key natural forests, ASAL woodlands and farmlands.

In 2018-19, about Sh10 billion was allocated to the key public agencies Kenya Forest Services (KFS), Kenya Forestry Research Institute, (Kefri), Kenya Water Tower Agency (KWTA) and National Environmental Management Authority (Nema).

Some of the funds will be used in forest restoration activities.

In 2018-19, the National Treasury set aside Sh500 million to finance Climate Change Fund (CCF) 2018 provisions for loans and equity for climate change research and innovation.

The cost of land degradation due to land use and land use change in the country was estimated at $1.3 billion per year between 2001 and 2009.

Moreover, the costs of rangeland degradation through loss in livestock and agricultural productivity were estimated at $80 million and $270 million per annum respectively.

Degradation of forested landscapes has exacerbated mitigation costs for irrigation, flood control, hydropower generation and even increased natural resource conflicts among communities.

Kioko says locals will be trained in sustainable farming to improve productivity and conserve soils.

This, he says, involves terracing, tree planting in farmlands and diversification of incomes.

The large-scale Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) in Africa is being funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, with Auda-Nepad, FAO, IUCN, World Bank, WRI, WWF and GIZ forming a consortium.

Programme countries include Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda, where 100,000ha (247,105 acres) of degraded landscapes are set to be restored to increase ecosystem and socioeconomic functionality.

Another 5.9 million ha (14,579,195 acres) are under planning processes of forest landscape restoration measures.

Kioko says the objective of the project is to restore the ecological and productive functions of degraded ecosystems in tree-rich landscapes to increase the resilience of landscapes and communities.