Production Practices and Quality Assessment of Food Crops. Vol. 1

Improvement of Grain Legume Production in Semi-Arid Kenya 167
in agricultural research. The governments need to encourage agricultural development
and create rural infrastructure that will permit crop surpluses to be marketed.
If agricultural productivity is very low in Africa for ecological and climatological
reasons, perhaps the real lesson is that growth should be led much more by outwardoriented
industry and services, rather than blindly making yet another attempt to
transplant integrated rural development strategies from other parts of the world
without customising them to Africa’s unique conditions. However, a food programme
for Africa must be intimately related to the needs of the rest of the world. The
aim should not only be self-sufficiency but should be to become a major net supplier
to the rest of the world. No matter how successful Africa’s efforts are to industrialize,
it remains a fact that Africa will be for many generations, primarily a
producer of agricultural and other primary products. We must learn to do it well
and on a rapidly growing scale. This will require massive frontal attack, not only
on the research needs but also on the practical problems of production, storage
and marketing (Eicher, 1999).
It should be noted that much of the needed food can be produced by smallholder
farmers using improved technologies (Uphoff and Altieri, 1999). In fact, new
rural development approaches and low-input technologies spearheaded by farmers
and non-governmental organisations are making a significant contribution to food
security at household, national and regional levels in some parts of Africa (Pretty,
1995). Yield increases are being achieved by using technological approaches, based
on agroecological principles that emphasize diversity, synergy, recycling and integration
and social processes that emphasize community participation and
empowerment (Rosset, 1999). When such features are optimised, yield enhancement
and stability of production are achieved, as well as a series of ecological services
such as conservation, improved natural pest regulation mechanisms, etc. (Altieri,
1996). These results can be used to achieve food security and environmental preservation
in developing countries, but their potential and further spread depends on
investments, policies, institutional support and attitude changes on the part of policy
makers and scientific community (Binswanger, 1998). Failure to promote such
people-centred agricultural research and development due to diversion of funds
and expertise will forego an historical opportunity to raise agricultural productivity
in economical viable, environmentally benign and socially uplifting ways. It
is clear that food security for a growing African population is more important than
food self-sufficiency and it should, therefore, be the major thrust in formulating new
agricultural policies.
1.3. The arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya – their extend and climatic
1.2. conditions
The arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) cover approximately 80% of the total land
surface of Kenya (Figure 1) and support slightly over 25% of the population, owning
over 50% of Kenya’s livestock population (Langat and Magwata, 1994). About 60%
of the country’s cattle population, 70% of its sheep and goats, and over 100% of
the camels are found in the ASALs (Brown, 1994). ASALs are subject to low and
erratic rainfall with great intra-and inter-annual variations. This variability becomes