Making Soil and Water Conservation Sustainable 385Most soil and water conservation projects have paid and continue to pay local
people in cash or food for their ‘participation’ (Kerr, 1994). But this is clearly self-
defeating. According to Reij (1988): ‘practice shows that where people are paid for
soil and water conservation, the end of the project almost invariably leads to a stop
in the construction of conservation works’.
More terracing yet more erosion
As a result of programmes not involving farmers in conservation, many have actu-
ally increased the amount of soil eroding from farms. Local people whose land is
being rehabilitated have found themselves participating for no other reason than
to receive food or cash. Seldom are the structures maintained, and so conservation
works rapidly deteriorate, accelerating erosion instead of reducing it. If perform-
ance is measured over long periods, the results are extraordinarily poor for the
amount of effort and money expended (Shaxson et al, 1989; Hudson, 1991; Reij,
1991; Shaxson, 1996).
Poorly designed structures cause erosion. Yet throughout Africa, little account
has been taken of how more terracing can lead to more erosion. In the early 20th
century, erosion in Lesotho was not a serious problem in cultivated fields, as grassed
field boundaries were well developed and maintained (Showers, 1989). Yet the
authorities ignored this indigenous practice, and installed contour banks. Local
people did not approve, because these reduced the size of fields and were easily
breached, causing gullies to develop leading to more erosion. The administration
attributed these gullies to ‘unusual weather’ (Showers and Malahleha, 1990).
Elsewhere in southern Africa, the first anti-erosion measures introduced in the
early 1930s were large ridge terraces and bunds, but these imported measures per-
mitted storm water to break through at vulnerable points. Careless construction
made them susceptible to bursting, and locals came to believe that ‘gully erosion
was caused by the government’ (Beinart, 1984).
Narrow-based terraces were introduced into Kenya from the US in 1940
(Gichuki, 1991). For 15 years they were widely used. By 1947, some 4000ha were
being protected each year, and this rate continued until 1956–1957. However,
these terraces were found to fill up with sediments quickly, were impossible to
maintain, and even began to aggravate erosion, and so by 1958 the number falling
into disrepair was exceeding new construction. By 1961, some 20,000ha had fallen
into disrepair. Eventually, the authorities recognized the problems and L. H.
Brown, the chief agriculturalist, issued a memorandum in 1961 saying that ‘narrow-
based terraces should be abandoned as policy ... we should move to strips of veg-
etation, preferably grass’ (in Wenner, 1992).
Bad contour ridging in the 1960s was worse than none at all in Zimbabwe
(then Rhodesia), where farmers say the compulsory construction of ridges caused
siltation of rivers. The ridges connected whole fields and drained in a single drainage
line. During severe storms, they concentrated water into powerful and fast-moving
bodies that caused great damage (Wilson, 1989). The same thing has occurred with