Typology and characteristics of farmers planting improved fallows in southern Africa

This paper presents empirical evidence on farmer-oriented factors that influence adoption of agroforestry practices inKenya. The paper argues that the adoption of agroforestry practices are influenced by many factors and one category of these factors are the characteristics and conditions of the farmer. These include gender, household headship, and household power relations, level of education, ownership of land and other property, occupation, marital status, and the size of the household. The authors observed that farmers would engage in agroforestry practices of various types and nature that fit their individual-household situations. The paper concludes that there are those factors like level of education, household decision-making, size of the household among others that positively enhance agroforestry practices, while others like lack of knowledge on agroforestry are constraints to the same. This notwithstanding, agroforestry has the potential to enhance household’s livelihood opportunities that translates into high income, food security, creation of jobs, aesthetics, soil conservation, and environmental gains like fresh air, shade and source of fuel energy. It is our recommendation that development agencies should come up with interventional measures mainly targeting training and creation of awareness among farmers on the importance of agroforestry production and how farmers can optimize on the gains of agroforestry within their local situations. These would include establishment of model farms, site visits, demonstrations, and training of selected farmers to train the rest.

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