US-Kenya Dissertation Enhancement: From Pattern to Process in Land Use Change: Land Reform and Agricultural Intensification in Meru

9912067这项论文强化资助资助美国研究生Thomas Smucker先生在密歇根州立大学地理系David Campbell教授的指导下，在肯尼亚Meru进行土地权属保障对农业集约化的重要性的研究。非洲农村的许多地区正在经历迅速的政治、环境和经济变化，这些变化正在影响土地所有权和使用模式。土地所有权往往首先发生在半干旱土地相对湿润的边缘地带，这将维持生计的生产系统推向越来越边缘的土地。这些不同边缘维度的交集为农业集约化创造了机会和障碍，它们也为分析当前土地利用变化模式提供了一个框架。在肯尼亚，在政府土地划界之前，经济作物生产在梅卢开始初步扩大。土地所有权进一步加速了Meru大部分高地融入货币经济的进程。由于人口增长和对高地资源的压力，无地或土地贫乏的农民开始向下坡迁移到梅鲁的半干旱地区，在那里他们与当地的塔拉库-梅鲁居民竞争。Smucker先生将使用政治生态学框架（将人与环境的相互作用视为由社会中的权力关系构成），探讨梅鲁土地所有权的当前阶段，其对更广泛的土地所有权保障体系的影响，以及其对景观资本投资的影响，以支持农业集约化。这项研究将在三个低地中部地点进行，代表土地业权的不同阶段。预计项目结果将显示农业集约化模式与复杂的社会进程之间的关系，而复杂的社会进程是当代土地利用变化模式出现的基础。肯尼亚国际牲畜研究所的Robin Reid博士和肯雅塔大学地理系的Edna Wangui博士将就该项目向Smucker先生提供指导。研究结果有望增加当前对土地利用变化的社会驱动力的认识，并将对地理学家、保护主义者和政策制定者有价值。该项目还将支持优秀研究生在职业生涯的早期获得国际研究经验。该项目由国际项目部和行为与认知科学部共同资助。

9912067This dissertation enhancement grant supports a US graduate student, Mr. Thomas Smucker, working under the guidance of Professor David Campbell, of the Department of Geography at Michigan State University, to conduct a study of the importance of land tenure security to agricultural intensification in Meru, Kenya. Many parts of rural Africa are undergoing rapid political, environmental, and economic changes which are affecting land ownership and usage patterns. Land titling tends to occur first in the relatively wetter margins of semi-arid lands, which pushes subsistence production systems into increasingly marginal lands. The intersections of these various dimensions of marginality create opportunities--and barriers--for agricultural intensification, and they also provide a framework for analyzing current patterns of land use change. In Kenya, initial expansion of cash crop production began in Meru before governmental land demarcation. Land titling further accelerated the integration of most of the highlands of Meru into a monetary economy. As a result of population growth and the resulting pressure on highland resources, landless or land-poor farmers have begun a downslope migration into the semi-arid lands of Meru, where they are in competition with the local Tharaku-Meru inhabitants. Using a political ecology framework, which views human-environment interactions as structured by power relations in society, Mr. Smucker will explore the current phase of land titling in Meru, its impact on the broader land tenure security system, and its implications for investment in landscape capital to support agricultural intensification. The study will be conducted at three lower midland sites representing various stages of land titling. Project results are expected to show the relationship between patterns of agricultural intensification and the complex social processes which underlie the emergence of contemporary patterns of land use change. Dr. Robin Reid, at Kenya's International Livestock Research Institute, and Dr. Edna Wangui, of the Department of Geography at Kenyatta University, will provide guidance on this project to Mr. Smucker.The results are expected to increase the current knowledge about the social driving forces of land use change, and will be of value to geographers, conservationists, and policy makers. This project will also support an international research experience very early in the career of an outstanding graduate student. This project is being jointly funded by the Division of International Programs and the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences.