Land Use Changes and Implications for Food Production Planning in Peri-Urban Ruiru Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Despite the critical role of agriculture in Kenya’s economic development, conversion of prime agricultural land to concrete landscapes is increasing at a worrying trend, thus putting national food sovereignty and overall environmental quality at risk. This study investigated this dimension using Ruiru Sub-County as a case study. The aim was to trigger land use planning and policy changes towards a balanced approach between emerging real estate markets and saving agricultural land for posterity. Geographic Information System procedures were used to map land use and land cover changes from 1988 to 2024. Results showed that by 2024, land under agriculture had reduced by 45.62% while urban land use had increased by 509%. Similarly, bare and rocky area increased by 133%, which was indicative of increasing land loss to abandoned stone mining quarries. Decline in land sizes also means reduced area under industrial crops like coffee and tea, and hence the shift to leafy vegetables and annual crops demanded by the increasing urban market. Further, expected increase in intensive peri-urban farming systems, will likely be accompanied with heavy use of agro-chemicals. Therefore, there is need for policy interventions to save agricultural land from unregulated competing uses and also to integrate environmental management best practices in County land use master plans.