A farming system analysis on the slope of Mount Kenya: a study of how water resources and land use are affected by climate variability in two areas in Embu District, Kenya
This study took place in t he Kapingazi River catchment in the Eastern Province, Embu D istrict, Kenya. The main objective was to assess the vulne rability towards climate variability of smallholder farmers by using a set of Participator y Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools. The particular focus was on issues related to water resources and the strategies farmers have developed to adapt to and cope with climate variability, in particular related to rainfall . The Kapingazi River catchment is a highland region on the southeast slope of Mount Kenya. This region has bimodal rainfall with one long and one short period of rain. The Kapingazi River catchment is home to a range of water resource issues caused by several factors such as destruction of the catchment area due to deforestation, overgrazing and poor cultivation methods, water conflicts due to water shortage and misuse of water, erosion of river banks due to land scarcity, and planting of eucalyptus trees on the river banks . The Kapingazi River contributes to the Tana River with hydropower plants that generate a large part of Kenya’s electricity production. The fieldwork consisted of interviews and the data were collected in three steps. Firstly, focus group discussions were held with community representatives. Secondly, based on the results from the group discussion, participants for in – depth interviews were selected and interviewed. Thirdly, a question naire was designed and used to collect quantitative data. Results from the study show that the vulnerability towards climate variability of the farmers varies between as well as within the different parts of the catchment. The difference in vulnerability showed, during the in – depth interviews, also to be related to the farmers’ wealth. This difference shows that a poor farmer experiences lack of drinking water and hunger during dry periods, whilst a rich farmer experiences loss of income and shortage of irrigation water.
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Publication year
2022
