Exploring socio-ecological niches for legumes in western Kenya smallholder farming systems

This thesis explores the potential of using herbaceous and grain legume species to improve soil fertility and farm productivity in the heterogeneous smallholder farming systems of western Kenya. Poor soil fertility is responsible for the limited productivity of the western Kenya smallholder farming systems. Although legumes have the potential for improving productivity, their sustainable use is impeded by the high degree of biophysical and socio-economic heterogeneity that characterizes the farming systems. The socio-ecological niche concept was proposed as a framework for facilitating the identification and integrated assessment of biophysical and socio- economic factors with potential influence on the choice of sustainable legume technologies for smallholder farmers...