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LECTURE II

LECTURE II. Agricultural Development policy, Law and Land Tenure. Introduction. The growth of the Kenyan economy is highly correlated to growth and development in agriculture

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LECTURE II

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  1. LECTURE II Agricultural Development policy, Law and Land Tenure

  2. Introduction • The growth of the Kenyan economy is highly correlated to growth and development in agriculture • In the first two decades after independence, the agricultural sector recorded the most impressive growth in sub-Saharan Africa at an average of 6% per annum for agriculture and 7% for the national economy • This could be attributed to the rallying call of Rudini Mashambani Mzee Kenyatta • Growth was spurred by expansion due to ample land and better us of technology

  3. Introduction • Government also established and supported many agricultural institutions such as farmers cooperatives and institutions for agricultural inputs (KFA), marketing (KPCU), credit (AFC), and agro-processing • Budgetary allocation to the sector was at an average 13% of national budget • However, this was not sustained and between 1980 and 1990 the sector recorded an average annual growth rate of 3.5% that reduced to 1.3% in the 1990s • The decline started to reverse in 2000 when average growth rate picked up to 2.4%

  4. Introduction • The growth after 2000 was spurred by the NARC Government’s concerted efforts especially in 2003, to revive agricultural extension and other institutions and to increase investment in the agricultural sector • The Government identified agricultural sector as a priority and hence key to economic growth.

  5. Introduction • More investment was gradually put in the sector and budgetary allocation was increased at a rate of 4.5% of national budget annually • These gains were however set back by the post election violence to the extent that the sector reflected a negative 2.5% growth rate in 2008.

  6. What is Agricultural Policy • Is a course of action that is formulated, adopted and pursued by the government to enable it achieve certain prescribed agricultural goals. • It is within the framework of this policy that priorities for agricultural development are set up. • Projects are then implemented during the plan-period as the necessary resources become available.

  7. What is Agricultural Policy • The agricultural system of a country cannot improve and increase its production without deliberate efforts by the government to develop the system. • It is the responsibility of the government to ensure adequate supplies of food, fibre, shelter and other social amenities for its people.

  8. Agricultural Policy: ASDS • The Agricultural Sector Development Strategy (ASDS, 2010-2020) is the national policy document for the sector ministries and stakeholders in Kenya. • ASDS is a revision of the Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture (SRA 2004) • It incorporates the successes and lessons learned from the SRA to provide the framework for stimulating, guiding and directing progressive agricultural growth and development in the next 10 years

  9. Agricultural Policy: ASDS • ASDS proposes realistic policies and institutional changes that are necessary for creating a vibrant and productive agricultural sector. • The strategy is expected to encourage and enhance positive participation among the civil society, individual farmers, farmer organizations and private sector.

  10. ASDS Vision and Mission • Vision: A food secure and prosperous nation • Since the agricultural sector is the backbone of the economy (and the means of livelihood for most of the rural population) it is inevitably the key to food security and poverty reduction. • In this strategy, the overall goal of agricultural sector is to achieve a growth rate of 7 percent per year over the next 5 years.

  11. ASDS Mission • Given the critical strategic issues that need to be addressed, the strategic mission for the sector is: An innovative, commercially oriented and modern agriculture.

  12. Strategic Thrust • Overall development and growth of the sector is anchored in two strategic thrusts: • Increasing productivity, commercialization and competiveness of agricultural commodities and enterprises • Developing and managing key factor of production

  13. Sector Targets • Assuming conducive external environment and support from enabling sectors targets to be achieved by 2015 include: • Reduced number of people living below absolute poverty lines to less than 25% to achieve first MDG • Reduced food insecurity by 30% to surpass the MDGs • Increased contribution of agriculture to the GDP by more than KES 80 billion per year set out in Vision 2030 • Divest from all state corporations handling production, processing and marketing that can be better done by the private sector

  14. Sector Targets • Reformed and streamlined agricultural services such as in research, extension, training and regulatory institutions to make them effective and efficient • The strategic thrust of increasing the productivity, commercialization and competiveness of agricultural commodities and enterprises will enable the sector to export more outputs, earn the country foreign exchange and create employment

  15. Agricultural Policy • Agricultural policy in Kenya revolves around the main goals of • Increasing productivity and income growth, especially for smallholders; • Enhanced food security and equity, emphasis on irrigation to introduce stability in agricultural output, commercialisation and intensification of production especially among small scale farmers; • Appropriate and participatory policy formulation and environmental sustainability.

  16. Agricultural Policy • The key areas of policy concern, therefore, include: • Increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, especially for small-holder farmers. • Emphasis on irrigation to reduce over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture in the face of limited high potential agricultural land. • Encouraging diversification into non-traditional agricultural commodities and value addition to reduce vulnerability

  17. Agricultural Policy • Key areas of policy concern • Enhancing the food security and a reduction in the number of those suffering from hunger and hence the achievement of MDGs. • Encouraging private-sector-led development of the sector. • Ensuring environmental sustainability.

  18. Key Policy Concerns • Declining agricultural performance • Performance slackened from an average of 4.7% in the first decade post independence to only below 2% in the 90s. Decline culminated in a negative growth rate of -2.4% in 2000. • Decline implies lower levels of employment, incomes and food insecurity for a vast majority of rural Kenyans

  19. Key Policy Concerns • Limited high potential agricultural land and over-reliance on rain fed agriculture • Only about 17% of the country’s land is high and medium potential agricultural land • Most intensive crop and dairy production takes place here. • The rest is arid and semi arid, not suitable for rain fed agriculture. • Thus increasing agricultural production can only come from intensification of land use in the high and medium potential lands.

  20. Key Policy Concerns • Limited diversification of Agricultural production • Narrow base of agricultural products, especially exports leads to high vulnerability of incomes to the international market trends. • The sector is characterised by weak vertical integration with weak institutions and support services for agricultural exports. • Only a few commodities provide livelihood for over 85% of the population • Despite the potential for exports of fresh produce it only accounts for 3% of the total production of fresh produce.

  21. Key Policy Concerns • Poor and inadequate rural infrastructure • Poor rural roads, markets and transport systems result in high transaction costs and inaccessibility to input and output markets are among the main concerns for the sector. • Inadequate and declining research in agriculture • There is inadequate demand driven research. • There is ineffective extension and delivery system of research findings.

  22. Key Policy Concerns • Agricultural sector financing and related activities. • Lack of finance for agriculture limits increasing production and investment in value addition activities in agriculture. • Inaccessibility to credit limits the range of activities, type of technology used and scale of operations that a farmer can adopt on his farm.

  23. Key Policy Concerns • Limited development and exploitation of the livestock sector. • Despite the long recognised potential of the livestock sector, this potential remains largely unexploited due to constraints such as • Recurrent droughts leading to massive losses in livestock. • Lack of reliable markets. • High costs of inputs and veterinary services. • The high potential for exports from livestock and livestock products remains unexploited due: • Inadequate capacity in standardisation and quality control • Inadequate processing capacity

  24. Other major agricultural policies • Kenya Vision 2030 • Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture • Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation • Sessional paper No. 4 of 1981 on National Food Policy (revised in 1993) • Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1986 on Economic Management for Renewed Growth • Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1992 on Development and Employment in Kenya and previous National Development Plans.

  25. Agricultural Law • Currently Agricultural land regulated by the Agriculture Act Cap 318 • The objectives of the Act include to: • Promote and sustain agricultural production • Provide for conservation of soil and its fertility • Stimulate the development of agricultural land in accordance to good land husbandry and management

  26. Agricultural Law • The Act controls agricultural operations up to the stipulation of what crops and livestock species are to be produced in specific areas. • Act empowers the Minister to: • Make orders for proper management of land • Cause compulsory acquisition of agricultural land not properly managed • Make Rules regarding the conservation of soil or the prevention of adverse effeccts of soil erosion

  27. Agricultural Law • The Act contemplates the promulgation of land development orders and schemes in circumstances considered necessary for proper husbandry. • Regulations made under the provisons of the Act proceed by way of prohibitions regarding land usage and practices inconsistent with the objective of good husbandry

  28. Other Laws • Other laws impacting on agricultural production include • Water Act 2002 • Forest Act 2005 • EMCA 1999 • Land Control Act Cap 302 • Physical Planning Act 1996

  29. Land Tenure • Defines ownership of land. • Represents the rights of people to own, use and control land and its resources. • Ownership of land often interferes with its use as an agricultural asset. • Use of land is an economic activity while control is political. • Rights of ownershipand use of land involve emotions. • Thus people often guard their land jealously whether it is currently exploited or not.

  30. Land Tenure • Some people are landless while others own disproportionately large amounts of land. • Others own land have no intention of farming while many who wish to farm have no access to land. • The landowners may exploit the landless by unfair tenancy arrangements that may demand products or profits from land-use.

  31. Traditional Land Tenure Systems • In the traditional set up members of a family, a village or a clan communally own the land. • Under communal land tenure, the individual has usufruct right on any vacant land after consulting the head of the community who holds the land in trust for the community. • The individual cannot dispose of the land by outright sale. • Possession of the land can only be confirmed when the individual physically occupies the land. • If vacated for some years, another person may take it up with the consent of the village chief or head of the family

  32. Traditional Land Tenure Systems • The tendency of family land to be shared among surviving children of a deceased parent leads to fragmentation and scattering of plots of land for the offspring. • Holdings become too small for economic exploitation and mechanization. • Some of the inheritors may hold on to the land by right even if they have no interest in farming. • This denies the enterprising farmer of the use of land and therefore is counterproductive.

  33. Traditional Land Tenure Systems • The biggest evil of the traditional tenure system is that it denies willing farmers of good farmland. • In many cases, a few powerful families control large tracts of land while a majority of the people remain landless and serve as labourers or tenants. • The landowners sometimes operate as absentee farmers by hiring the landless villagers as labour or by practicing sharecropping in which the landless worker utilizes the land and receives an agreed proportion of the proceeds.

  34. Land Reform • Many governments try to reform the land tenure system in order to: • Provide land for the landless • Prevent the landless exploitation by the land-owning classes. • However, land reform is an explosive political problem • Landowners will not give up their land without resistance. • They often represent the wealthy or the traditional authority and they can make the work of land reformers very difficult. • Very often, a benevolent dictator, the military or a new social reformer is needed in order to achieve land reform.

  35. Land Reform • Farm-settlement schemes are sometimes used as a method of land reform. • They involve acquisition and distribution of large tracts of land among a group of people who would otherwise be unable to find land. • The organizers usually provide other inputs such as credit, mechanization equipment and technical information through an extension service. • The schemes are required not only to provide employment for young school leavers, but also to improve agricultural supplies to the country. • Technological innovations in agriculture can be brought to the farmers and tested in such schemes.

  36. Constraints to Agricultural Production • Inadequate rural infrastructure including poor rural roads and transport system. • High dependence on rain-fed agriculture. • Inadequate input application. • Inaccessibility to credit for smallholder farmers especially women. • Limited application of agricultural research findings because of inadequate extension activities and support staff. • Low budgetary provision for the agricultural sector.

  37. Constraints to Agricultural Production • Cultural constraints: • Related to gender discrimination in ownership, transfer and usage of land • perceived ethnic exclusion • traditional inheritance practices leading to land fragmentation. • Poor co-ordination of major actors in the sector e.g. infrastructure development, water, lands and settlements and poor co-ordination with Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Livestock Development and Marketing.

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