The water and land footprints of meat and milk production and consumption in Kenya: implications of sustainability and food security
Food consumption and production are increasingly becoming delinked due to enhanced agricultural productivity that has generated production surpluses in production areas and the globalization of trade. The environmental impact of food consumption is thus increasingly indirect, i.e. not immediately in the same place as in which the consumption takes place. Another development is the increasing fraction of animal source foods in the diet of people, adding to the indirect environmental impacts of consumption because the environmental footprint of animal products is generally larger than the footprint of the crop products they replace. This is particularly relevant in developing countries where the consumption of meat and milk is growing more rapid than in developed countries. 
The objective of this thesis is to explore the historic, current and future consumption and production patterns of meat and milk in Kenya and link this to an assessment of the associated water and land footprints. The research has been set-up in four subsequent studies. The first study assesses the historical trend in the water and land footprints of meat and milk production in Kenya. The second study explores the potential to meet the projected increase in demand for livestock products within the environmental boundaries. In the third study we assess the historical trends in the water footprint of meat and milk consumption in Nairobi, a rapidly growing megacity. In the fourth study we assess the future water and land footprints within a food self-sufficiency perspective.
We conclude that there is a large potential to increase productivity in Kenya through sustainable intensification. However, it is important to note the non-uniformity in the potential to increase productivity. Across three systems, severe historic declines in productivity in the arid and semi-arid systems but a concurrent increase in productivity in the intensifying humid system have been demonstrated. Though there are generic proposals for further productivity improvements, they do not explicitly address the non-uniformity and expected results still fall short of sustainably meeting the projected increased demand for animal source foods.
Starting-time 10.45h in Building Waaier, Prof.dr. G. van Berkhoff-zaal
