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Social determinants of soil and water conservation in rural Kenya

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Abstract

Soil erosion is a major environmental problem and threat to rural development in Kenya. Numerous attempts to address the problem have apparently had little success. There are however some districts that have been very successful, notably Machakos. In this study we search for the factors that determine successful development in soil conservation such as social capital, human capital and market integration. One of our main results is that social capital measures are significant determinants of investment in soil conservation. A better understanding of the relevant mechanisms is essential for developing policies targeting improvement in natural resource management.

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Notes

  1. For instance, the width of terraces must be sufficient to allow for easy turning at each end since farmers use oxen for cultivation.

  2. These areas in Central and Eastern Kenya respectively show increasing environmental degradation.

  3. A plot as used in this study is a contingent piece of land that has been cultivated with a specific crop or crop combination for which the farmer can measure the inputs and outputs.

  4. See World Bank: Social capital initiative. http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/index.htm.

  5. If X 1, X 2,...,X n are the original set of n variables, then a variable Y formed from a linear combination of these takes the form \( Y = a_1 X_1 + a_0 X_2 + \cdots + a_n X_n \) where the a i ’s (i = 1, 2,..., n) are the principal component loadings or weights. The weights or loadings add up to one.

  6. The information index has a negative minimum due to the negative weight attached to communal sources of information, presumably seen as substitutes for other sources of information.

  7. Inclusion of a soil depth variable to control for land quality did not noticeably alter the coefficients or their standard errors.

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Acknowledgements

I owe thanks to Professors Thomas Sterner, Olof Johansson-Stenman, Fredrik Carlson, Gardner Brown and Stein Holden for their very helpful comments. Thanks also to the two anonymous referees for their comments. Financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) is highly appreciated and acknowledged.

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  1. School of Economics, University of Nairobi, Harry Thuku Road, Nairobi, P.O. BOX 30197-00100, Kenya

    Wilfred Nyangena

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  1. Wilfred Nyangena
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Correspondence to Wilfred Nyangena.

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Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.

Appendices

Appendix I

Appendix II Survey questions used to extract social capital information.

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Nyangena, W. Social determinants of soil and water conservation in rural Kenya. Environ Dev Sustain 10, 745–767 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-007-9083-6

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