Tana Delta Irrigation Project, Kenya: An Environmental Assessment

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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 17
Rehabilitation of the Tana Delta Irrigation Project, Kenya: An Environmental Assessment. (b) the ‘madzini’ or ‘floodplain’ forest patches further away from the river course and located within the farmed floodplain. (c) the ‘gubani’ or ‘bush’ woodlands that characterise the land beyond the floodplain. Forest use differs amongst the three types: the more mature ‘madzini’ forests are considered the most important, primarily because they contain species not found in the less mature, riverbank forest patches. Whilst less used, the ‘gubani’ woodlands are important as a source of building poles (see Section 1.5. As has been seen in Section 1 of this report, in addition to their importance in providing basic needs (e.g. firewood), the forests are particularly important as a traditional coping strategy in regular times of hardship and stress. Traditional authority of the forests lies with the GASA – the Pokomo Elders Council, a general body in which traditional Pokomo law is vested, who implement and enforce traditional law through GASA representatives within each village. All forests continue to be governed by a similar set of rules and regulations. However, more recently it is the government Forest Government that has official jurisdiction over these forests – administered through its local office in Garsen. B. Recent Dynamics/Current Situation Forests Uses/Benefits (a) Occupational structure results Table 8 summarises results of household forest activities, based on the occupational structure survey, both for home consumption (e.g. firewood) as well as for livelihood. Results show high incidence of firewood, building sticks, medicinal plants and weaving material use, in addition to traditional beds and sticks for farming. Table 8: Percentage of households using forest products (occupational survey) Forest use type (n=120) Firewood Charcoal Medicinal plants Sticks - building Poles - building Sticks - farming Sticks - livestock Grazing /thatch Log hives Carvers Weaving Trad’l beds Canoes % HH 94 26 78 94 16 52 16 2 4 12 61 55 19 (b) Household forest survey results The results from the household forest survey generally reinforce the findings above. Table 9 summarises current forest uses, including importance to the household, use levels, and demand-supply trends. The survey highlights the relative importance of various forest benefits, as opposed to incidence, as per Table 8 above. 18
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