The implementation and institutionalisation of agroforestry in western Kenya: A gender and agency analysis

This study analyses agroforestry project implementation and efforts to institutionalise new and improved agroforestry technologies at the local level. It concentrates on the case of the CARE Agroforestry Extension Project (AEP) in Siaya District, in western Kenya, which is one of the oldest and largest agroforestry projects in sub-Saharan Africa.; Farmers in western Kenya have used trees for centuries. In the early 1980s, fears of an impending “woodfuel crisis” in the region catalysed the set-up of agroforestry research and development projects to promote technologies such as tree nurseries, alley-cropping, multipurpose woodlots and “green” fencing with trees. Women's groups have been the primary means through which agroforestry projects have been implemented in western Kenya.; The theoretical framework of this dissertation combines insights from policy and project implementation, gender relations and institutional and organisational studies. Its research methodology involved in-depth interviews with 96 male and female farmers and 33 women's groups in Siaya District, as well as discussions with representatives of government and non-governmental organisations. Quantitative data provided baseline information about the farmers, women's groups and agroforestry adoption. Qualitative data was analysed with NUD*IST (Non-Numerical Data Indexing, Search and Theorizing) software to explore farmer perceptions, organisational relationships and project processes.; The analysis covers 12 years of the implementation of the AEP, investigating its content and context between 1983 and 1995. The author argues that the project failed to recognise farmers as social agents who act both in appreciation of, as well as in opposition to, the structures of a project that seeks to institutionalise agroforestry. Institutional analysis in agroforestry can be improved by investigating policy and project implementation. However, gender relations influence farmers' agency and should be incorporated into implementation analysis.; This study concludes that efforts to institutionalise agroforestry at the local level failed to take into account the extent to which agroforestry was already being practised by farmers, the abandonment of some agroforestry technologies and the collapse of women's groups. On these fronts, in fact, there was de-institutionalisation as a result of project implementation.