Social categories and agency within a Conservation Agriculture framework in Laikipia, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been presented to smallholders in Laikipia (Kenya) as a strategy to improve both soil fertility and productivity. In this paper, we provide a historical and social analysis of categories used to define soil management practices and farmers by agricultural programmes in colonial and post-colonial Kenya. For this purpose, we have conducted archive research, recorded the social memory of agricultural policies and farming techniques, and examined contemporary conceptual frameworks and institutional networks around CA in Ethi and Umande in Laikipia County, Central Kenya. We identified evidence of historical continuity in the strategies and methods of agricultural promotional practices. CA networks have broadly advertised the advantages of CA as a means to revert soil degradation and improve livelihoods. However, farmer categorizations based on engagement with CA, promotional strategies, and unclear operational definitions have all prevented CA from being understood by farmers as a technological farming proposal. Instead its adoption is linked with social status and occasional free access to agricultural inputs. Additionally, information about the potential risks and limitations of CA should be explicitly made available to farmers in Laikipia in order to promote transparency and informed decision-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation agriculture
• smallholders
• technology
• soil degradation
• agrarian history

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the families that received JS in their homes and whose identity for the sake of anonymity will not be revealed. Thanks are due to the interpreter. Thanks are due to the proofreader Liam Carney. This project was funded with National Funds from the Foundation for Science and Technology through the ERAfrica programme (ERA-AFR/0001/2013). An acknowledgement is due to the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology for funding the research contract of JS (CEECIND/04424/2017) and to the I&D Pluriannual Funding for research institutions (UIDP/50012/2020).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Joana Sousa (PhD in anthropology), has carried out ethnographic research in Guinea-Bissau, Ecuador and Kenya and has looked at local livelihoods, local understandings of nature and nature conservation, and non-humans in witchcraft and magic. More recently her research interests include circulation of agricultural knowledge and technology in mangrove rice farming in Guinea-Bissau.

Paulo Rodrigues (Bs in Environmental Engineering, MSc in Geography) is a former researcher of ICAAM (Institute of Mediterranean Agricultural and Environmental Sciences) at the University of Évora and is currently working as an independent consultant in the development and cooperation sector. His main areas of interest are the environment, agriculture and rural development.

Gottlieb Basch (PhD in Agricultural Sciences) has extensive research experience on land use and soil management, namely on soil conservation and soil carbon dynamics. He has coordinated the research group Soil, Water and Climate at the Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development and the subnetwork Food & Water of UNIMED, and he is the President of the European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF, after 2011).

Notes

1 ‘CA farmer’, meaning a farmer who declares or is perceived as having adopted CA in her/his farm.

2 This is a quote of Franklin Roosevelt: ‘A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself’, which was included in a letter to all State Governors on a Uniform Soil Conservation Law, 26 February 1937 (Ratcliffe, 2017).

3 Corresponds to 1.2–2.0 hectares.

4 2.67–3.21 USD, 12, March 2015.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal): [Grant Number UIDP/50012/2020]; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal): [Grant Number CEECIND/04424/2017]; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through the ERAfrica programme: [Grant Number ERA-AFR/0001/2013].