Dissertation Research: Does Off-Farm Work Encourage or Discourage Soil-Fertility Enhancement Practices throughout Western Kenya?

长期以来，土壤保持一直是可持续生计系统的基本组成部分。然而，最近贸易自由化、权力下放、取消公共补贴和减少对农业的服务所带来的经济变化，使非农就业成为一项关键的农村生计战略，往往阻碍土壤保持做法。在肯尼亚，大多数农场的面积不到3公顷，大多数家庭必须以非农工作来补充农业生产才能生存。然而，非农工作减少了家庭劳动力在农场活动中的可获得性，例如土壤保护。除非农民拥有充足的家庭劳动力，或者有能力雇佣额外的劳动力，否则随着他们越来越多地从事非农工作，他们就会忽视自己的土地。在整个肯尼亚西部，只有男子倾向于从事非农业工作，妇女承担了额外的耕作责任，土壤保持做法进一步受到家庭构成的影响。然而，如果农场产生的额外收入足够并用于农场改良，非农场工作可以带来更多的土壤保持实践。这篇论文研究项目由佛罗里达大学的一位文化人类学家在肯尼亚西部高地进行，考察了家庭结构、资源获取和非农业工作对农场土壤保持实践的影响。这项研究测试了一种假设，即由从事高薪、工业或服务业非农业工作的成员组成的农业家庭比那些受雇于收入较低的农业非农业工作的成员更注重土壤保护。通过对两个农村的参与者观察、对120个农户的人种学访谈、决策建模和统计分析，以了解激励肯尼亚西部农民实践或不实践土壤保护的机会、限制和理由。除了对一名年轻社会科学家的教育做出贡献外，该项目的更广泛影响还取决于它对当地农业发展项目的贡献。该项目的成果对肯尼亚政策制定者也具有重要意义，这些政策制定者有意将稀缺的资金和服务用于对减贫和保护资源最有希望的部门和活动。

Soil conservation has long been a fundamental component of sustainable livelihood systems. Yet recent economic changes brought on by trade liberalization, decentralization, elimination of public subsidies and reduction of services to agriculture have rendered off-farm employment a critical rural livelihood strategy that often discourages soil conservation practice. In Kenya, where most farms are less than 3 hectares, the majority of households must supplement farm production with off-farm work in order to subsist. Off-farm work, however, reduces the availability of household labor for on-farm activities, such as soil conservation. Unless farmers have abundant household labor or can afford to hire additional labor, they neglect their land as they increasingly pursue off-farm work. Throughout Western Kenya, where only men tend to work off-farm and women have taken on additional farming responsibilities, soil conservation practice is further affected by household composition. Yet if the added income generated off the farm is sufficient and applied towards on-farm improvements, off-farm work can lead to increased soil conservation practice.This dissertation research project, conducted throughout the highlands of western Kenya by a cultural anthropologist from the University of Florida, examines the effects of household composition, resource access, and off-farm work on the practice of on-farm soil conservation. The research tests the hypothesis that farming households comprised of members employed in higher paying, industrial or service sector off-farm jobs practice more soil conservation than those comprised of members employed in lower paying, agricultural off-farm jobs. Participant observation in two rural villages, ethnographic interviews of 120 farming households, decision-modeling, and statistical analysis are used to understand the opportunities, constraints, and rationale motivating West Kenyan farmers to practice or not practice soil conservation.The broader impacts of the project, in addition to the contribution to the education of a young social scientist, rest on its contribution to local agricultural development programs. The results of the project are also significant to Kenyan policymakers interested in directing scarce funds and services towards the sectors and activities that hold the most promise for both poverty alleviation and resource conservation.