HC Deb 26 January 1937 vol 319 cc780-2W
Sir R. Glyn

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies (1) whether meat forms any substantial proportion of East African native diet; and whether any steps will be taken to alter the present circumstances in which the presence of large and uneconomic herds of cattle will, if not checked, so reduce the natural soil efficiency that arable cultivation will be so restricted as to cause serious danger to the natives' normal food supply;

(2) whether he can state what steps have been taken by the Government of Kenya to restrict the livestock in native reserves; and whether an estimate of 6,000,000 cattle in an area the grazing capacity of which, without risk of dangerous soil erosion, is not more than 100,000 is one based on a careful official census;

(3) what action has been taken by his Department to carry out the recommendations of the reports of the East African Commission, 1925, the Kenya Agricultural Commission, 1929, and of the Kenya Land Commission, 1933, concerning the menace of soil erosion in the East African Colonies and Tanganyika;

(4) what is tha total area of land capable of cultivation in the native reserves of the East African Colonies, and what proportion of this is arable; and to what extent is it estimated that land has gone out of cultivation and grazing since 1925, the year of the East African Commission's report, on account of the increase of soil erosion?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

It is not possible, within the scope of a reply to a Parliamentary Question, to give a complete account of all the measures being taken in East Africa to deal with the questions of the overstocking of native reserves and the consequent soil erosion, especially as these problems require different treatment in the various areas affected. I may, however, mention that, in pursuance of a policy agreed in 1934 the Governments of the East African Dependencies, in which overstocking is prevalent, are attacking the problem on the following general lines:

  1. (1) Education of the natives with regard to the value of livestock and its by-products as produce for sale, rather than as wealth to be hoarded;
  2. (2) Education of the native to adopt meat as a normal constituent of his daily diet, so that livestock may come to be regarded as a normal source of food supply, with the dual object of reducing the numbers of cattle and raising the general standard of the health of the natives;
  3. (3) Establishment of markets for the sale of meat and of factories for the manufacture of by-products and development of stock trade routes to these markets and factories from overstocked or well-stocked areas;
  4. (4) Extension of areas suitable for stock by conservation of water, afforestation and reclamation of fly areas;
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  5. (5) Education as to value of quality as opposed to quantity.

Regulations have also been promulgated with a view to regulating the grazing of cattle, sheep and goats in various areas which were being denuded. It has, however, not yet been thought expedient to proceed with the compulsory culling of stock.

In 1935 a grant of £23,590 from the Colonial Development Fund was made to the Government of Kenya for the erection of a by-products factory to afford a means of disposing of surplus native cattle. This scheme has, however, been held in abeyance owing to the Government having been approached by a well-known company with proposals for the establishment of a meat extract factory in Kenya. It is hoped that in the course of this year a factory will be erected and will take a minimum of 30,000 head of cattle per annum.

In Tanganyika Territory a meat factory was operated at Mwanza for a number of years, assisted by grants from the Colonial Development Fund. It is now closed down, but the Tanganyika Government has reported that the internal markets for native cattle are now expanding rapidly and that the pastoral tribes are realising the advantages of selling their surplus stock.

As regards soil erosion in Kenya, I would refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the reply which I gave on the 27th of January to a question by the hon. Member for Camberwell, North (Mr. Ammon). Similar action is being taken in other East African dependencies.

The estimate of the cattle population of Kenya (6,000,000) was given by the chief veterinary officer in evidence before the Kenya Land Commission. I have no information as to how this estimate was compiled. It relates, however, to the whole of the main stock areas of the native reserves and clearly has no reference to any particular area in which the carrying capacity is as low as 100,000.

The detailed information for which my hon. and gallant Friend asks in his fourth question is not available in the Colonial Office, and I doubt whether it would be possible to compile such an estimate, which in any case could not be accurate.