LAKE VICTORIA BASIN

Study area description Lake Victoria is the second largest lake in the world with a surface area of 68.800 Km and a shoreline of 3.450 Km. The Lake has a catchment area of 194.200 Km which extends to Rwanda and Burundi (Awang'e & Ong'ang'a 2006). The lake is shared by Kenya (6% by area), Uganda (43%) and Tanzania (51%). Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) has a population of over 30 million, a third of the combined population of the East African States, and the fastest growing with a population growth rate of 2.3% per year. With increasing populations, riparian communities around LVB have been vulnerable to diseases and other risks due to a lack of medical facilities and poverty. The basin is a major commercial centre. Many households adjacent to Lake Victoria derive their livelihoods directly or indirectly from the lake s resources as fishermen, fish traders, fish processors and indirectly as fishing gear manufacturers, boat builders, ice producers etc (Warui, 2007). Research Problem Empirical evidence shows that fishing communities in developing countries are grappling with high and increasing poverty levels (Bene, 2004; Nevin, 2005; Salagrama, 2006). For instance, in Africa, there is a strong evidence of high and increasing poverty levels amongst fish workers on the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria (Omwega et al., 2006). Despite the evidence of poverty among fishing communities in developing countries which can be attributed to reliance of fishing as the only source of livelihood, there is dearth of information on potential alternative livelihood strategies that can be pursued to reverse the poverty situation through livelihood diversification. Past household livelihood studies in LVB have concentrated on fishing activities and have ignored these potential alternative livelihood strategies by the fishing communities to alleviate the poverty levels. In order to address this research problem and fill in the gaps in empirical information, this study proposes to investigate the potential of promoting and conserving NUPs in enhancing livelihood security of rural households in the LVB.

High poverty levels in Western Kenya region of LVB; that are manifested in malnutrition and poor health prevail yet the region is endowed with high agricultural biodiversity in form of NUPs. Onyango (2007) on her work on diversity of cultivated African Leafy Vegetables (a component of NUPs) observed that they have high micronutrient content, medicinal properties, several agronomic advantages and economic value yet their potential in alleviating poverty and ensuring household food and nutrition security in the rural areas has not been exploited. In spite of the potential of these NUPs they face several constraints hampering optimal production and utilization such that if the situation is left unchecked it may result in loss of this biodiversity. The findings of the research will not only help generate policies for reducing poverty among fishing communities but will go a long way in conserving the biodiversity of the neglected and underutilized plant species.