An environmental geographical study on the moral economy of rural societies in Kenya's semi-arid areas

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This study examines socio-economic aspects and sustainable environmental use in the sedentary rural society in Central Kenya, which has experienced rapid population growth and field expansion into semi-arid areas.1.Selecting an irrigation scheme along a tributary of Ewaso Ngiro in the Laikipia Plain, the study identifies a positive relationship between socio-economic stratification and irrigation-benefit distribution among the peasants, investigating the settlement process and land use change, ownership of land and irrigation means, and the reality of dry-season irrigation. However, the relationship is not necessarily positive when many producers adopt the risk-minimizing strategy of small-scale production as is found in the contract farming of horticulture for export, where the producer price and profit are subject to global and seasonal conditions and labor cost minimization. The study then points out that the moral stressing household autonomy has been generalized under individualiz … More ed usage of water, land and labor, and that this has hampered communal management of the irrigation system.2.The geomorphological part of the study examines detailed information on slope processes occurring in two areas under different climatic conditions, in the uppermost drainage area of Ewaso Ngiro. In the Aberdare Mountain, situated in highland sub-tropical areas, many landslides and multiple slumps frequently take place on the valley-side slopes, and it has undergone relatively rapid mass movements. On the other, in the semi-arid Laikipia Plain, sheetwash extensively appears on the most slopes, which locally results in intensive sheet erosion of recent years. It is concluded that considerable landform changes due to sheetwash can occur in semi-arid areas, depending on land use change.3.The study illuminates marketing strategies in the above irrigation scheme as cases of regional linkages in the era of post structural adjustment of the Kenyan economy to understand better the situation where the case scheme was located. Less