An interesting story from Kenya, where soil and water conservation has such a long history, with beautiful and impressing stories about Fanya Juu terraces as the most widely known methods practised by farmers. In my view direct capacity building or awareness raising of farmers is not the most likely measure. Do the authors understand why the farmers no longer maintained their terraces? Was it indeed lack of awareness or knowledge how to maintain? Did farmers no longer maintain the terraces because the crops they produced lacked a remunerative market? Did farmers loose access to their land in terms of user rights? Or other reasons? Unless the authors have a clear understanding of the underlying reasons for neglecting their terraces, it will be difficult to identify the best solution. Curious to learn more about this issue.
Published by Ben Haagsma
An interesting story from Kenya, where soil and water conservation has such a long history, with beautiful and impressing stories about Fanya Juu terraces as the most widely known methods practised by farmers. In my view direct capacity building or awareness raising of farmers is not the most likely measure. Do the authors understand why the farmers no longer maintained their terraces? Was it indeed lack of awareness or knowledge how to maintain? Did farmers no longer maintain the terraces because the crops they produced lacked a remunerative market? Did farmers loose access to their land in terms of user rights? Or other reasons? Unless the authors have a clear understanding of the underlying reasons for neglecting their terraces, it will be difficult to identify the best solution. Curious to learn more about this issue.