Annual Report Of The Senior Soil Chemist

Abstract

The field work of the survey by a consortium of a Canadian engineering firm and a Dutch land use investigation organization in association with the Kenya Agriculture and Water Development Departments, of the possibilities of irrigation in a three-million-acre tract of country in the Lower Tana River Basin was largely completed in 1964. The soil surveyor which Kenya contributed to the team undertaking the soils aspect of the survey was immediately responsible for vegetation studies and the investigation of soil/natural vegetation relations as an aid to soil mapping. The semi-detailed soil survey indicated that the soils of about 75 per cent of the area are saline and alkaline, 10 per cent are alkaline but not saline, 5 per cent are saline but not alkaline and 10 per cent have no salinity or alkalinity problems.