2. THE HISTORICAL SETTING

2.2 Increased pressure on land

The population of Kenya was approximately 7 million at the time of the 1962 census. It is estimated that in the 30 years since then the population has increased more than three-fold to about 24 million in the early 1990s. In spite of this population increase, the country has been largely self-sufficient in food and agriculture has remained one of the major export earners.

The increase in population was followed by an increase in agricultural production made possible both by increasing the area cultivated and by intensifying the use of each unit of cultivated land. The shifting cultivation of earlier days has disappeared from most areas and the "land mining" type of farming practised by the white settlers is also a thing of the past. Most land suitable for rainfed agriculture is now utilized, and in addition marginal lands have been put under cultivation. Subdivision of land over several generations has resulted in very small holdings in many high-potential areas. The population in urban centres has grown more rapidly than that in the rural areas and an ever-increasing proportion of the population needs to be fed without being actively involved in farming themselves.

In spite of achievements in intensifying production, there are significant problems in agricultural production. Major efforts are required to maintain soil fertility, prices of inorganic fertilizers are on the increase, and new ways of achieving sustainable production are being sought. In the arid and semi-arid (ASAL) areas the livestock population has increased and parallel to this pastoralists have lost their best dry-season grazing lands to agricultural production.

From the late 1970s onwards, researchers and extension workers have concentrated on determining the role that trees can play in sustaining or even increasing overall production in various farming systems. Trees have two major functions in farming areas: firstly in supplying useful products and secondly in service functions that support other activities such as growing of crops or rearing livestock. Recently awareness has grown of the important role trees can play in solving some of the serious problems in tropical land use. The role of trees in land-use systems will be discussed in detail in Chapter 4.

With the shift from monocropping agriculture and intensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides towards a more sustainable system based on tropical ecosystems, support for farmers' tree-growing efforts has become essential.