African Woman and Child Feature Service

Kenyan farmers will soon be required to plant trees on at least 10 per cent of their agricultural land.

According to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, this will be the only way to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“We are already experiencing the effects of climate change since we have received less than adequate rains in the last three years resulting in severe famine,” Dr Romano Kiome told the delegates at the second World Congress of Agroforestry at the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi.

He said agroforestry offered an important opportunity to mitigate effects of climate change adding: “This is the only way to help improve our forest cover that is currently stuck at 1.7 per cent.”

After consultations with various stakeholders, the government had drafted Agriculture Act Cap 318, which is already with the Attorney-General and is to become effective before the end of the year.

The law, the first of its kind in the country, will be enforced by local administration to ensure that farmers adhere to it. It also gives powers to the local people to report those who fail to plant trees in their farms.

Kiome said once enacted, his ministry together with that of Forestry and Wildlife will ensure that the regulation is adhered to.

Addressing the same meeting, the Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre, Dr Dennis Garrity said: “The future of forests is on the farm and the tree cover on farmlands in temperate areas is slated to continue growing.”

He said the world will soon be awakening to the crucial fact of enhancing smallholder tree production systems to supply its various needs for tree products.

Garrity said that Africa has indigenous tree species like faidherbia albida — a leguminous nitrogen fixing acacia like tree — that are highly compatible with food crops.

He said the tree goes dormant at the beginning of the rains and deposits abundant quantities of organic fertilizer onto the food crops to provide nutrients that increase yields.

“These trees then grow their leaves and pods in the dry season hence providing a crucial source of fodder for livestock when other plants are dried up,” he explained.

Garrity blamed scientists for failing to refine and adapt these unique tree species to benefit millions of farmers who desperately need homegrown solutions to their food production problems.

“Let’s use advanced genomic technologies to identify the genes and transfer them to a range of other species that could then be compatible with intensive cropping systems,” he explained.

The UNEP executive director, Mr Achim Steiner appealed to scientists to put modern technological prowess in trials towards solving people’s problems.

He told scientists to adopt indigenous traditional knowledge that has been used over the centuries.

In a recent study that was released during the congress by the World Agroforestry Centre, almost half of all farmed landscapes worldwide currently include significant tree cover. However, agriculture, particularly in developing countries is often associated with massive deforestation.

The study showed the extent to which trees are a vital part of agricultural production in all regions of the world as more than one billion hectares that make up 46 per cent of the world’s farmlands tree cover exceeds 10 per cent.

Kiome said that the government was also drafting proposed legislation that will outlaw planting of eucalyptus trees along river basins and other water towers.

“The tree compared to other tree species, consumes a lot of water that is currently contributing to the drying of land in the country,” he added.

Kiome blames the drying of rivers and insufficient water level in the lakes in Kenya to eucalyptus trees and wanton cutting of trees from the water towers.

The meting, attended by over 1,400 experts, discussed the importance of trees on farms for humanity’s survival.

New research on sustainable approaches to farming that can help slow climate change and meet food demands of an extra three billion people by 2050 were also unveiled to the participants.