School of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies
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Item The Ecology of Lake Naivasha, Kenya: Introduction and Historical Review(1984) Muchiri, S.M.; Harper, D.M.Item The fishery of Lake Naivasha, Kenya(CSIRO PUBLISHING, 1992) Muchiri, S.M.; Hickley, P.Item A community project for Agriculture in Kenya(2004) Muchiri, S. Mucai; Ngugi, C.C; Hickley, P.Item The persistence of two introduced tilapia species in Lake Naivasha, Kenya, in the face of environmental variability and fishing pressure.(1984) Muchiri, S. Mucai; Hart, Paul J.B.; Harper, David M.Item Fluctuations in the Fisheries of Kenya's Rift Valley Lakes: Causes and Prospects for the Future(CSIRO PUBLISHING, 1997)Item Regional Linkages in the Kenyan Horticultural Industry(Ashgate, 2015-01) Dannenberg, Peter; Nduru, GilbertIn rural areas of industrialized societies, food production as a basis for growth and employment has been declining for many decades. In the Global South, on the other hand, food production is still often the most important factor for socio-economic development. Analysing the ongoing changes and dynamics in rural development from a functional perspective through a series of case studies from the global north and south, this volume deepens our understanding of the importance of new functional and multifunctional approaches in policy, practice and theory.Item ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ANALYSIS(Aquaculture Collaborative Research Support Program, 2005) Aquaculture Collaborative Research Support ProgramA major barrier to socio-economic development in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya, is food inadequacy. Some of the more important factors that have led to this status are rapid population growth outstripping food production capacity, post-harvest losses, land degradation that leads to further decline in soil fertility, and climatic changes, particularly periodic droughts and subsequent flooding. This food shortages coupled with high poverty rates that diminish people’s ability to afford the ever increasing food prices, has led to related health problems especially in rural areas. In the effort to meet the required food supplies to feed the growing population, forest lands have been cleared for small scale agriculture. Inevitably, a major challenge to economic developing in Kenya is, therefore, the sustained increase of food production without compromising the integrity of the environment within which that much required food is produced. As such the project seeks to complement other projects that seek to “improve the productivity and sustainability of land use systems in Nzoia, Yala and Nyando river basins through adoption of an integrated ecosystem management approach” through development of on-farm and off-farm conservation practices and increased local capacity (Global Environmental Facility, 2004:3). Desired outcomes include increased biodiversity and reduced erosion (GEF, 2004).Item Fluctuations in the fisheries of Kenya's Rift Valley lakes: Causes and prospects for the future(CSIRO, Collingwood (Australia), 1997) Muchiri, MucaiLakes Turkana, Baringo and Naivasha are lakes in the eastern arm of the Great Rift Valley of Kenya that provide important commercial fisheries and, to a small extent, also recreation. The fishery of Lake Turkana is based on 12 main species of fish out of a total of 48 species. Tilapias, Lates spp., Citharinus, Distichodus, Labeo and Hydrocynus are the most important. In Lake Baringo, 3 species (Oreochromis niloticus, Clarias gariepinus and Protopterus aethiopicus) are the most important of the 7 species present in the lake. Lake Naivasha hosts a total of 5 species of which O.leucostictus, Tilapia ziilii and Micropterus salmoides are of commercial importance. The 3 fisheries support an estimated 10,000 fishers plus people engaged in fish industry related services. Yet these fisheries depict wide fluctuations in fish landings. Habitat variability has been identified as one of the most important factors influencing the fisheries of the 3 lakes. Lake level fluctuations are shown to be closely followed by similar fluctuations in fish catches. The observed fluctuations in lake levels are as a result of climatic factors combined with human activities which include damming of rivers and abstraction of water for irrigation. Variability in submerged vegetation cover has also been important in the three lakes. Other anthropogenic influences on the fishery of Lake Naivasha take the form of fishing pressure and species introductions while in Lake Baringo, catchment degradation leading to excessive silt loading in the lake has played a more important role. The persistence of these fisheries in the face of besetting environmental and anthropogenic factors is attributable, for the greater part, to the resilience of the tilapias that constitute the most important catch in each of the 3 Rift Valley lakes. It is suggested that an integrated approach to catchment management is necessary for the achievement of maximum sustainable fisheries in the Rift Valley lakes.