Smallholder Livelihoods in Semi-Arid Areas in Transition: Longitudinal Results from Laikipia, Kenya

Abstract

This study was conducted in the context of a research project on «Semi-arid Areas in Transition: Livelihood Security, Socio-ecological Variability and the Role of Development Interventions in East Africa» under the project lead of Prof. Dr. Marcus Nüsser, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University. The project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. The focus lies on livelihood strategies in semi-arid regions that undergo rapid transition due to global climatic change, migration, resource conflicts and changing access regimes. The study on hand aims to be conducive to the project goals contributing to knowledge about livelihoods in rural Africa. The study analyzes how livelihood assets and strategies of smallholders in the Laikipia district in Kenya have changed based on data from semi-structured household interviews as a follow-up survey of longitudinal data available from a long-term research project on livelihood strategies conducted by the Centre for Training and Integrated Research in Arid and Semi-arid Lands Development (CETRAD) in Nanyuki, Kenya. The initial livelihood survey was carried out under the lead of Prof. Dr. Urs Wiesmann, Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern.