www.ijird.com November, 2017 Vol 6 Issue 11 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INNOVATIVE RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT DOI No. : 10.24940/ ijird/ 2017/ v6/ i11/ 119404-281531-1-SM Page 71 Forest Plantation Establishment: A Question of Subsistence or Commercial Farming in Gathiuru and Hombe Forests 1. Background The conventional methods of forest plantation establishment include direct seed sowing, establishment through raising seedlings in tree nurseries or through natural regeneration followed by coppice management. Each of the methods may apply permanent departmental laborers or intermittent casual labour. Another option is ‘concessions’ where a timber company establishes and manages forest plantations under an agreement. These are options that have been shown to increase the cost of forest plantation establishment prompting departments to involve communities in a bid to reduce the costs (Chapman and Allan 1981, Kagombe and Gitonga 2005). In Kenya, the most commonly used approach to establish forest plantations through community’s participation is the plantation establishment and livelihood improvement scheme (PELIS) formerly known as shamba (farm) system where peasant farmers lived in villages within the forest land (Kagombe and Gitonga 2005, Imo 2008). At some time in the early 2000 due to changing socio-economic and political system, the forest resident farmers were evicted from the forest land and the system became known as non-residential cultivation (NRC) (Imo, 2008). Globally, it is a method that has evolved over the years since it was first applied as the taungya system to establish teak plantations in Myanmar and subsequent spread in Asia and African in the 1800s (Jordan et al., 1992; Ojo 2014; Ndomba et al., 2015). In its initial application, the main aim of the system was to establish forest plantations but allowing the workers to produce agricultural food crops in cycles of three to five years in small plots of land as a secondary benefit aimed at addressing the farmers’ subsistence food needs (Ojo, 2014). Apparently, the people that participated in the implementation of the system in the past have been the poor, landless, unemployed and often illiterate members of communities living around the forests. This characterization was considered` a pre-requisite for the success of the shamba (farm) system and became entrenched in the philosophy of the system (Evans and Turnbull 2006, Witcomb and Doward 2009). There was therefore little expectation ISSN 2278 – 0211 (Online) John Mathenge Ngatia Senior Forest Officer, Wangari Maathai Institute of Peace and Environment, Kenya Ph.D. Student, The University of Nairobi, Kenya Dr. Thuita Thenya P. Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya Ngecu Mwaniki W. Professor/ Lecturer, Department of Geology, University of Nairobi, Kenya Abstract: Plantation establishment under community participation is an age-old concept first applied as a formal forest plantation establishment method in Myanmar in 1856 under the name taungya. Under this system farmers were permitted to produce crops while tending forest plantation tree seedlings over a period of three to four years. The paper analyses the crop farming dynamics of this system that was introduced in Kenya at the turn of 1900 under code name shamba (farm) system but currently known as plantation establishment and livelihood system (PELIS). Initially the system targeted involvement of illiterate, poor, unemployed, landless rural peasants so as to produce subsistence food. In contrast, currently farmers are educated with their own land. The results of the study indicate that 91% and 93% of PELIS farmers in Gathiuru and Hombe forests respectively produced agricultural food crops under the program for commercial purposes. Only less than 1% of the farmers produced food crops for subsistence. The farmers invested an average of Ksh 56,050 (USD5,44.18) per hectare over a period of three years and earned an average of Ksh 164,680 (USD 1,598.84) over the same period a return of 292%. This indicates the transformation from peasant farming for subsistence to commercial engagement in PELIS. Thus, there is need to revisit the plantation establishment legislative framework. Farmers participating in PELIS should no longer be perceived as poor peasants whose goals are only subsistence but rather should be viewed as forest management partners interested in investments and profits making. Keywords: Plantation establishment, livelihood improvement, communities, cash-crops, subsistence-crops, sustainability