Mwaka’s MA thesis is a study on an alternative livelihood strategy which (formerly) pastoral hous... more Mwaka’s MA thesis is a study on an alternative livelihood strategy which (formerly) pastoral households took to during the past two decades. Honey harvesting has been a traditional livelihood strategy among Pokot pastoralists. However, honey was only harvested by a very limited number of specialized people. Traditionally, it were individuals of specific patri-lineal clans who dealt with honey harvesting preferably. In recent years a number of development projects propagated the commoditization of honey. Apparently honey is widely available in large quantities due to the specific structure of the bush/tree vegetation. Since the 1980s development projects have preached that the abundance of honey as a resource should be used to improve food security. Improved hives were advertised widely and apparently got used throughout the region. Due to flaring prices for honey on urban markets incentives were high to invest more time into honey production. In some communities the income from hone...
Land-use and livelihood patterns among Eastern African pastoralists have changed dramatically in ... more Land-use and livelihood patterns among Eastern African pastoralists have changed dramatically in recent decades. The dynamics in East Pokot effectively illustrate these changes. We focus on the spread and intensification of honey production and crop cultivation, and describe the patterns of adaptation and diffusion and the current techniques of production. We address these processes as dynamics of agricultural intensification rather than as forms of diversification, because we contend that the current transformations in pastoral communities go beyond temporal strategies of risk avoidance. We argue that, in the case of East Pokot, intensification is related to population growth, albeit not in the directly linear way proposed by Boserup. Rather, this relation is mediated by variables that include markets, labour, technology and the micro-conditions of the agro-ecological environment.
Mwaka’s MA thesis is a study on an alternative livelihood strategy which (formerly) pastoral hous... more Mwaka’s MA thesis is a study on an alternative livelihood strategy which (formerly) pastoral households took to during the past two decades. Honey harvesting has been a traditional livelihood strategy among Pokot pastoralists. However, honey was only harvested by a very limited number of specialized people. Traditionally, it were individuals of specific patri-lineal clans who dealt with honey harvesting preferably. In recent years a number of development projects propagated the commoditization of honey. Apparently honey is widely available in large quantities due to the specific structure of the bush/tree vegetation. Since the 1980s development projects have preached that the abundance of honey as a resource should be used to improve food security. Improved hives were advertised widely and apparently got used throughout the region. Due to flaring prices for honey on urban markets incentives were high to invest more time into honey production. In some communities the income from hone...
Land-use and livelihood patterns among Eastern African pastoralists have changed dramatically in ... more Land-use and livelihood patterns among Eastern African pastoralists have changed dramatically in recent decades. The dynamics in East Pokot effectively illustrate these changes. We focus on the spread and intensification of honey production and crop cultivation, and describe the patterns of adaptation and diffusion and the current techniques of production. We address these processes as dynamics of agricultural intensification rather than as forms of diversification, because we contend that the current transformations in pastoral communities go beyond temporal strategies of risk avoidance. We argue that, in the case of East Pokot, intensification is related to population growth, albeit not in the directly linear way proposed by Boserup. Rather, this relation is mediated by variables that include markets, labour, technology and the micro-conditions of the agro-ecological environment.
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Papers by Innocent Mwaka