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Agro-ecological Zoning (AEZ) refers to the division of an area of land into smaller units, which have similar characteristics related to land suitability, potential production and environmental impact.
Article 2:
AEZs: The Kenya System
(Source: www.infonet-biovision.org ) CC: BY NC SA
An Agro-ecological Zone is a land resource mapping unit, defined in terms of climate, landform and soils, and/or land cover, and having a specific range of potentials and constraints for land use. (FAO 1996). The essential elements in defining an agro-ecological zone are the growing period, temperature regime and soil mapping unit. There are several systems for describing Agro-ecological zones in the Tropics. In Kenya two are used:
From the above table virtually 80% of the country lies in the semi-arid to very arid Zones (ASALs), which are predominantly inhabited by the pastoralists and agro-pastoralists.
Kenya's ASALs also support about seven million people and more than 50% of the country's livestock population. These areas, which are also classified as rangelands, are unsuitable for rain fed cultivation due to physical limitations such as aridity and poor vegetation.
