Soil Conditions of the Marafa - Magarini Area, Kilifi District: A Preliminary Assessment

Abstract

At the request of the Ministry of Lands and Settlement, in view of a soil-conservation orientated pilot project for settlement scheme improvement, to be financed and executed in cooperation with the Australian Development Assistance Agency, at the evaluation of the area was carried out on 17th and 18th of April 1976 in the Marafa-Nagarini area, N.W. of Malindi township. The data gathered should help the Ministry and the A.D.A.A. in the plan..'1ing of the proposed project. No soil data of the area existed; therefore with the help of aerial photographs on scale 1:50.000, e preliminary soil map of the area was prepared. It should be stressed however the present mapping is a provisional one, based mainly on aerial photograph interpretation and a few field observations (augerings, profile pits, road cuts) and laboratory data. Due to the limited time available, the site evaluation concentrated on the coastal plain and the uplands; the alluvial plain of the Sabald river was surveyed earlier (1975) by the Minor Irrigation Development Special Task Force of the Kenya Soil Survey. Use could be made of their field and analytical data on the alluvial soils. These results of their site evaluation will be published in the near future in more detail (Bonarius, in prep.) Execution of a project a envisaged should however be preceded by a proper semi-detailed soil survey, together with a topographical survey.