With global concern on climate change impacts, developing countries are given special attention due their susceptibility. In this paper, change and variability in climate, land use and farmers' perception, adaptation and response to change are examined in Danangou watershed in the Chinese Loess Plateau. The first focus is to look at how climate data recorded at meteorological stations recently have evolved, and how farmers perceived these changes. Further, we want to see how the farmers respond and adapt to climate variability and what the resulting impact on land use is. Finally, other factors causing change in land use are considered. Local precipitation and temperature instrumental data and interview data from farmers were used. The instrumental data shows that the climate is getting warmer and drier, the latter despite large interannual variability. The trend is seen on the local and regional level. Farmers' perception of climatic variability corresponds well with the data record. During the last 20 years, the farmers have become less dependent on agriculture by adopting a more diversified livelihood. This adaptation makes them less vulnerable to climate variability. It was found that government policies and reforms had a stronger influence on land use than climate variability. Small-scale farmers should therefore be considered as adaptive to changing situations, planned and non-consciously planned.

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Dryland livestock production systems are changing in many parts of the world, as a result of growing human populations and associated pressure on water and land. Based on a combination of social and natural science methods, we studied a 30-year transformation process from pastoralism to a livestock-based agro-pastoral system in northwestern Kenya, with the overall aim to increase the understanding of the ongoing transition towards intensified agro-pastoralist production systems in dryland East Africa. Key to this transformation was the use of enclosures for land rehabilitation, fodder production, and land and livestock management. Enclosures have more soil carbon and a higher vegetation cover than adjacent areas with open grazing. The level of adoption of enclosures as a management tool has been very high, and their use has enabled agricultural diversification, e.g. increased crop agriculture, poultry production and the inclusion of improved livestock. Following the use of enclosures, livelihoods have become less dependent on livestock migration, are increasingly directed towards agribusinesses and present new opportunities and constraints for women. These livelihood changes are closely associated with, and depend on, an ongoing privatization of land under different tenure regimes. The results indicate that the observed transformation provides opportunities for a pathway towards a sustainable livestock-based agro-pastoral system that could be valid in many dryland areas in East Africa. However, we also show that emergent risks of conflicts and inequalities in relation to land, triggered by the weakening of collective property rights, pose a threat to the sustainability of this pathway.

Kenya's development seems trapped in a vicious circle caused by soil erosion, declining soil fertility, land fragmentation, uctuating agricultural production, widespread poverty, corruption, ethnic tension, rapid population, urban growth and a declining economy. The development challenge is to reverse the negative effects of these processes and promote sustainable development. This paper, based on multidisciplinary work discusses whether sustainable development based on agriculture is attainable in Murang'a district in Kenya's Central Highlands. Firstly, it investigates some biophysical aspects of sustainable agriculture such as land use across time, soil nutrient status and yield, cultivated crops and soil productivity by analysing aerial photographs and soil samples and conducting interviews. It suggests that the area has gone through major biophysical changes. Second, it relates the farmers' attitude to promotion of sustainable development as carried out by the National Soil and Water Conservation Programme. It suggests that farmers carry ideas of corruption, often following ethnic lines that hampers ef®cient implementation of the extension advise. Finally, it identi®es links behind rural-urban migration by estimating households' probability of generating incomes outside the farm, typically in urban areas. Opportunistic farming, manifested by temporary reduction of farming on own land to satisfy immediate income needs, is very common among farmers.More needs to be done to promote agro-based, small-scale rural industries, improve agricultural management practices, facilitate appropriate credits, enhance marketing opportunities, ensure timely crop payments, and increase participation in decision making. It is important to realize that for farmers to embrace policies which promote agriculturely-based sustainable development the policies ought to biophysically possible, socio-politically acceptable and economically feasible.