Land resources inventory and productivity evaluation for national development planning

Abstract

The developing countries would need to achieve an increase in their agricultural output by more than threefold during the next century to keep up with increasing demand, stemming from growth in population, incomes and urbanization. There is an urgent need for each country to quantify its long-term food and agricultural requirements and assess them against the possibilities of sustainable production from its own land resources. The extent to which physical resources of soil, climate, terrain and water can be utilized to produce food and agricultural products is limited. The ecological limits to production are set by soil and climatic conditions as well as by specific production inputs and management applied. Any 'mining ' of land resources beyond these ecological limits will, in the long run, only result in degradation and ever-decreasing productivity of land and of outputs, unless attention is paid to the management, conservation and enhancement of the natural resource base. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization agro-ecological zone (AEZ) methodology is concerned with the quantification of land resources and their potential agricultural productivity and population supporting capacity for development planning. The AEZ Kenya country methodology is described.