Abstract not found

Abstract not found

This article describes the chief findings of research carried out in four African dryland areas to investigate the validity of the authors ’ ‘Machakos hypothesis’, and to derive lessons on appropriate enabling policies. The findings were subsequently submitted to in-country validation and dissemination exercises. The lessons learnt from these in regard to introducing research findings into country policy dialogues are set against the background of current discussion of this issue. The article also discusses uptake at the international level, because it tends to be at this level that development paradigms and practices are formulated and promoted into countries through donor and agency actions.

agricultural research centers that receive principal funding from governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations, most of which are members of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTORS AND PARTNERS IFPRI’s research, capacity strengthening, and communications work is made possible by its financial contributors and partners. IFPRI receives its principal funding from governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations, most of which are members of the Consultative Group on

Typeset at Drylands Research and printed at Press-tige Print, Crewkerne. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers. The research reported in the working paper forms a part of a study on Policy requirements for farmer investment in semi-arid Africa, which was funded by the Natural Resources Policy Research Programme of the Department for International Development (DFID), United Kingdom (Project R 7072 CA). DFID can accept no responsibility for any information provided or views expressed. ii Preface Drylands Research Working Papers present, in preliminary form, research results of studies carried out in association with collaborating researchers and institutions. This working paper is part of a study which aims to relate long-term environmental change, population growth and technological change, and to identify the policies and institutions which are conducive to sustainable development. The study builds upon an earlier project carried out by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in Machakos District, Kenya, whose preliminary results were published in a series of ODI Working Papers in 1990-91. This led to a book (Mary Tiffen, Michael Mortimore and Francis Gichuki, More people, less erosion: environmental recovery in Kenya, John Wiley, 1994), which was a synthesis and interpretation of the physical and social development path in Machakos. The book generated a set of hypotheses and policy recommendations which required testing in other African dryland environments. Using compatible methodologies, four linked studies are now being carried out in:

Typeset at Drylands Research and printed at Press-tige Print, Crewkerne. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers. The research reported in the working paper forms a part of a study on Policy Requirements for farmer investment in semi-arid Africa, which was funded by the Natural Resources Policy Research Programme of the Department for International Development (DFID), United Kingdom (Project R 7072 CA). DFID can accept no responsibility for any information provided or views expressed. ii Preface Drylands Research Working Papers present, in preliminary form, research results of studies carried out in association with collaborating researchers and institutions. This working paper is part of a study which aims to relate long-term environmental change, population growth and technological change, and to identify the policies and institutions which are conducive to sustainable development. The study builds upon an earlier project carried out by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in Machakos District, Kenya, whose preliminary results were published in a series of ODI Working Papers in 1990-91. This led to a book (Mary Tiffen, Michael Mortimore and Francis Gichuki, More people, less erosion: environmental recovery in Kenya, John Wiley, 1994), which was a synthesis and interpretation of the physical and social development path in Machakos. The book generated a set of hypotheses and policy recommendations which required testing in other African dryland environments. Using compatible methodologies, four linked studies are now being carried out in:

During the past 200 years, trends of demographic growth, urbanisation, technological change and commercialisa-tion have driven global and regional land use change (LUC) and associated land cover changes (LCC) (Gold-ewijk, 2001; Ramankutty & Foley, 1999). These four drivers can also be detected at local level, where they act through mediating factors such as institutions, gover-nance, and social relations (Turner, 1999), which are more specific to time and place. Other political economic fac-tors, including global market exclusion, corporate inter-vention, and capital flight also have potential significance for land use through their impact on livelihood decisions (Bryceson, 2002; Ellis, 2000). At present it is widely be-lieved that global drivers are becoming stronger and local ones weaker. This raises the question, ‘How sustainable (economically or ecologically) are land use systems at the local scale? ’ This leads in turn to the second question, which is ‘How much can LCC data tell us about LUC processes, as it is these which policy seeks to guide?’ All developing countries (though not necessarily all places within those countries) have experienced rapid LUC on a large scale, pride of place among global ana-lysts being given to deforestation in the humid tropics

The Working Paper Series serves to disseminate the research results of work in progress prior to publication to encourage the exchange of ideas and academic debate. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. Inclusion of a paper in the Working Paper Series does not constitute publication and should not limit publication in any other venue. Copyright remains with the authors. When Working Papers are eventually accepted by or published in a journal or book, the correct citation reference and, if possible, the corresponding link will then be included in the Working Papers website at: www.giga-hamburg.de/workingpapers.