Tana Delta Irrigation Project, Kenya: An Environmental Assessment

Rehabilitation of the Tana Delta Irrigation Project, Kenya: An Environmental Assessment.
Land
A. Traditional Use Pattern
The most important farming resource is the low-lying, fertile flood plains adjacent to the Tana
River, flooded seasonally and supporting crop diversity. All Pokomo land, including flood
plains, is allocated between villages along traditionally demarcated boundaries. Each village
in the TDIP area contains two major land-use zones: the fertile flood plains, and the
surrounding ‘gubani’ woodlands at higher altitude beyond the flood plains. All activity is
concentrated on labour-intensive, low capital-input subsistence farming in the floodplain area,
where up until recently, the land area per village has been sufficient to allow increased crop
production through expansion of the tilled area as population (and therefore labour supply)
increased. By contrast the ‘gubani’ woodlands are little used, being infertile and difficult to till.
The Orma pastoralists of Baandi move out of the sodden Tana delta during the long rains
(March-April), utilizing outlying grazing areas until stocks are diminished, and returning to the
delta as the long dry-season progresses (August-September). They then remain in the delta
until the following year’s long rains return. Access to grazing on and around the wetter
floodplains of the current TDIP, through both the long and short dry-season, represents a
critical component of their livelihood survival.
B. Recent Dynamics/Current Situation
Three major dynamics have impacted the productivity of the land resource over the past 15-
20 years, both for Pokomo cultivators and Orma pastoralists.
I. The halt of seasonal flooding due to the shifting of the Tana River’s course (see 2.1
above).
II. The inception of the TDIP rice scheme, which removed 2500 acres 3 (1042 hectares) of
either utilized or available cultivable floodplain land lying within Pokomo-demarcated
lands as part of the project’s total of 10,000 acres. The TDIP in the process also
converted former grazing lands.
III. Natural population growth, necessitating an increase in the cultivated floodplain area
available to villages. The result is that currently, all but one village (Wema) is now
cultivating all available floodplain land. In addition, according to Baandi residents,
continued land degradation outside the delta combined with population growth has
resulted in greater pastoralist herd influxes into the delta area, to the extent that
movement in search of new grazing within the delta has become constricted due to
diminished availability; resulting in individual groups/villages more jealously guarding
and defending specific grazing areas – all of which both necessitates and results in
increasingly ‘fixed’ home bases.
C. Implication/Conclusion
• The absence of either irrigation and/or capital to intensify per acre productivity has
resulted in a fixed upper limit to household and community food production, directly related
to erratic rainfall levels. Whilst the maximum yield of the major crop – maize – is 15 bags
per acre during sufficient rains, typical yields average 2-3 bags per acre (this contrasts
with maximum yields of 25 bags per acre in other parts of the country, where inputs are
available). Most significantly, average production per year is typically lower than basic
food needs.
• Conversion of critical grazing lands combined with increased competition for grazing
continues to compromise local Orma livelihoods.
Forests
The following section gives a more detailed consideration of forest use patterns, dynamics
and issues, since forests are the primary interest of the current study.
A. Traditional Use Patterns
Villages distinguish between 3 types of forest within their lands:
(a) the forest patches immediately adjacent to the existing (or recent) river course.
3 According to Wema, Kulesa, and Hewani villages
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