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Kenya: Experts Warn About Effects of Poor Land-Use Planning

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4 years ago

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It is the dream of every Kenyan to own a parcel of land in their name. However, the craving results in poor land management, leading to land unproductivity.

Land resources management experts now warn that if county governments do not adopt policies to restrict land use according to the needs of the community, this will result in an artificial land shortage, affecting future planning for agriculture and other infrastructure development.

“Already we have seen in towns and cities poor land use, planning and management resulting in lack of space for important social services such as schools,” explains Prof Karanja Mwangi, a former chairman of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Nairobi.

“Children are forced to cover long distances to attend school, yet some of the development could be conveniently allocated land away from residential estates.

“This would leave space available for critical social facilities like hospitals, schools and social recreation, and utilities such as water and sewerage lines, roads, railways, power and internet installations.”

In counties, land should be zoned to secure agriculturally productive land from being interfered with by the robust land subdivision into plots for house development.

Dr Patrick Gicheru, a soil scientist specialising in land use, planning and climate change, says that accelerated land subdivision for commercial use such as real estate development poses a threat to agriculture-potential areas.

The conversion of peri-urban land into commercial use has already resulted in heavily subdivided smaller portions in densely populated areas, restraining socio-economic activities.

These lands that were formerly groceries for towns and cities, once converted into commercial and residential use, will affect food security at the local and national level, resulting in rocketing food prices.

“If this is not controlled through national and county policy frameworks, it will lead to further land degradation in form of soil fertility decline,” explains Dr Gicheru.

Recently, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro), the Stockholm Environment Institute-Africa Centre (SEI) and the University of Leeds conducted joint research on land use, focusing on smallholder farmers in Siaya, Bungoma and Kakamega counties.

“We conducted the ‘land use economic survey’ with the aim of advising farmers on sustainable land management practices to enhance yields,” says Dr Philip Osano, SEI director.

Maintaining agroforestry

“The study revealed that farmers with three to five acres of land often need to invest heavily to effectively sustain agroforestry and physical terraces technologies and practices.

“Smallholder farmers practice agroforestry and use terracing methods to maintain soil fertility and moisture content for sustainable food production to feed their families.

“However, we discovered they incur a cost on maintaining agroforestry and physical terraces technologies, in addition to other costs such as inputs.”

The researchers recommended that the two levels of government prepare policies under which farmers can get subsidies and consider compensating them on some of the farm maintenance costs.

Dr Gicheru, who retired in October as Kalro director, was in charge of Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Embu, Kirinyaga and Nyeri counties, where he advised on land use management.

He states that with increasing population and land becoming scarce, land use should shift from ‘traditional conservation’ to ‘resilience and restoration’.

“This will mean that every family will be able to restore land fertility for agricultural production maximisation while land which has been underutilised for being classified as arid and semi-arid can be adopted for proper economic use instead of being left idle,” he explains.

Foreseeing a looming land use management problem in future, the Laikipia County government has stepped up measures to control illegal land sale for commercial developments, without approval on development plans for specific areas.