aistand south~ern afrkca - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

production systems. These societies, owned and
managed by individuals who independently own
their land parcels, demonstrate a real need to
reconstitute cooperation and fill the gaps left by
subdivision of group ranches. The three established
co-operative societies in Kajiado District
though with small membership (20,150) indicate
the desire to he joint owner of cooperatively
owned assets either in the form of land, animals
or business enterprises. Livestock-related
activities, mainly butcheries, are the main form
of business,
The cooperative livestock production in the
newly frecoprtvsoiteiscridut
formed cooperative societies is carried out
on privately owned individual land parcels. In
this system thissysem a cert~ai'.m acorainnumbr number o of cooeraive
cooperative
society animals are entrusted to an individual
member for herding throughout with the
coopertive cooperative oci society meeting meting tho the cost of otdrugs,,
Eup,'rvision and sales. The ndividual farmer is
remunerated on the basis of the number of
animals and the durati'in of time cooperative
livestock spend on hi, pastures. Triis method
appeared the meet appealing to members.
Extension
Before the establishment of the Division of
Range Management in the Ministry of Agri-
culture in 1963, livestock production activities in
Kenya rangelands fell under the jurisdiction of
veterinary and livestock officors. The major
concerns were animal diseases and routine
vaccinations, tsetse control programmes and
livestock numbers. The Range Manvgement
Division, established as a technical division,
required personnel specifically trained in range
science with special emphasis on resource
ecology, resource economics and livestock
nutrition among other disciplines.
Despite the fact that the Division has
adequate qualified personnel, various projects
within the purview of the division including the
group ranches have failed. Examination,
evaluation and monitoring of these projects
indicate that pre-development concepts and data
were inadequate and, in most cases, inappropriate.
Planners, developers and financiers
failed to recognise the ful! implications of several
important constraints including sociological,
technical and ecological considerations,
Planning and implementation of projects
were based on Western concepts and lacked
adequate input from the pastoralists. They were
not sufficiently involved to identify themselves
with the project.
Sedentarisation, dest c,ang based on definite
livestock quota per member, a rigid grazing
system based on calenoar months and a
sophisticated loan system were the central
requirements in the implerrentation of group
ranches. All these prerequisites violated
conceived social values of iastoral societies
198
including the Maasai society. Consequently the
projects based on these stipulations had to fail.
Some relevant observat ions
In the group ranches, individual share grazing
(pasture) and various infrastructural developments
which include water facilities, dips and
crushes exist. Individual members benefits
depended on herd size and particularly the size
of the breeding herd which determined the
growth rate of the herd. Members with large
herds reaped enormous benefits, as livestock
was wealth. a means Mostof producers generating assume income and the storing same
posito ruilg tose the me
position and are unwilling to sell their means of
wealth production. Their aim remains to use
th rodin. her im reaistock
their breeding herds to multiply the livestock
herd. of reducing Destocking wealth is and viewed also negatively as undermining in terms the
abiling weath ando as uening the
ability to generate income. Consequently the
group ranch policy of destocking through periodic
livestock sales to achieve proper carrying
capacity of the range went against the intentions
and wishes of most members. In other words
therB is little incentive for most individual
mem~ers to cooperate in these periodic livestock
sales. In this light, it is obvious that the initial
rationale ofgroup ranching was defective. Group
ranches were doomed to fail from the start.
A large acreage of natural pasture is the
principal input for successful livestock
principal in for succes e
production in range areas. The acreage should be
adequate to accommodate rotational grazing.
The major constraint for the newly formed
cooperative societies in Kajiado is the small land
parcels which cannot accommodate rotational
grazing. To overcome the problem, small ranch
owners attempted to consolidate their parcels to
achieve the minimum size required for
meaningful ranching. However, most consolidation
processes were complicated by two
factors, namely most coperative members did
not necessarily ow,. PAdacent pieces of land and
secondly, some of the cooperative members may
have sold their land parcels to individuals who
did not want to cooperate. The implication here
is that the consolidation process is extremely
difficult. The obv;ous conclusion is that
individuals without sufficient land for lives: ock
production canot successfully produce livestock
and will therefore be forced to cooperate with
other timall land owners. However, due to
various problems that make land consolidation
a problem livestock production on a cooperative
basis in Kajiado District will not be successful.
Viable land use alternatives therefore need to be
formulated.
Recommendations
Subdivision of group ranches is not a solution to
the socio- economic problems in the area under
consideration. Long-term economic solutions lie
in the rehabilitation of the group ranch practice.