Conventional approach of establishing soil conservation strategies in
degraded drylands has had negligible success. This has been contributed
by many constraints, including; lagging of farmers in technology
adoption, inadequate resources, and lack of motivation. Thus, a study
was conducted among three agro-pastoral community farmer groups in
Korellach Parak, Kapkitony, and Kaporowo villages domiciled in
Chepareria ward, West Pokot, Kenya, to assess contributory factors and
consequences of adopting terracing as a soil conservation measure. Mixed
methods comprising; one-on-one interviews, cross-sectional field
measurements, and focus group discussions (FGDs), were used for data
collection. Results indicate that the agro-pastoral communities are
fully aware of soil degradation and its impacts. Besides terracing,
farmers practice stone bands, enclosures, agroforestry, and ridges.
Terracing is a recently adopted farm-level soil conservation practice
achieved through organized farmer groups dubbed “Kemorokorenyo”
(meaning let us reclaim our land) merry-go-round. Within the three
villages, 60% of the households have their farms terraced with an
average terrace volume of 103.8±21.45m3, 105.89±33.126m3, and
129.6±15.966m3 in Parak Kapkitony and Kaporowo, respectively. Rapid
sedimentation of terraces dykes, which contributes to the reduced
effectiveness of the terrace system was identified as the major
challenge. The sediment volume significantly differs along the slope,
with the highest sediment build-up experienced on high slopes as shown
by the Kruskal Wallis test; H (2) =6.699, p=0.035. Terrace embankments
reinforcement practice to counter sedimentation challenge has faced slow
adoption. The poor reinforcement is attributable to the lack of
knowledge on suitable local context multipurpose materials to meet the
community’s needs.
Dynamics of Terrace Adoption, Propagation, Benefits & Challenges among Dryland Agro-Pastoralist Communities of West Pokot
