The Future of Smallholder Farming in Eastern Africa - Uganda ...

5.0 CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
5.1 Land Tenure Security
This study confirms the importance of land tenure security effects on agricultural
productivity. Sustainable agricultural development cannot be achieved without considering
land tenure security. Increased tenure security is needed to stimulate environmental
conservation. It is crucial for government to lay emphasis on enhancing land tenure
security through land adjudication, registration and issuance of title deeds, and through
strengthening appropriate policy and legal framework. A land use policy is needed that
will enhance investments in land improvement and sustainable use of land. Such a policy
should cover and give incentives to leasers of land as well.
5.2 Environmental Degradation
This study did not establish any significant relationship between environmental
degradation and land productivity. However, some descriptive analysis showed that
productivity has been dropping in both districts over time and this was partly attributed to
environmental degradation. It also showed that indiscriminate exploitation of the
environment resulted in sinking ground water table and reduced volume of rainfall per
year in Laikipia district.
The foregoing confirms the long-term nature of environmental degradation and how
difficult it is to disentangle the effect of degradation on crop yields, especially in the short
run. This is made even more difficult when the effects are masked by application of
fertilizer, manure and higher yielding seed varieties.
As any other investor, farmers would only start taking conservation seriously after
realizing some consequences of degradation. However, some farmers may take note of the
consequences of degradation too late when the land is already degraded to the extent that it
will take too long or massive resources to return it to its original state. It should therefore
be emphasized to farmers and other land users that development of any land should go
hand-in-hand with environmental conservation. Farmers should thus be enlightened
through aggressive extension and campaigns. Exchange visits to places suffering from
advanced environmental degradation versus those, which have conserved the environment,
should be promoted. This will make them visualize the consequences of delayed soil
conservation and make them see the need to take appropriate measures before notable
degradation is registered.
In order to achieve sustainable development, there is need to intensify the campaign for
environmental conservation through activities such as tree planting with the aim of
increasing vegetation cover. In areas where agroforestry may not be feasible due to use of
heavy machinery in cultivation and/or harvesting, woodlots and fruit-trees may be adopted
to increase vegetation cover. Besides vegetation cover, measures that ensure retention of
water in the soil should be promoted. These include mulching, composting, water
harvesting among others.