ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the study and study site on which the analysis of the determinants of agricultural intensification is based, including some of the relevant literature. It discusses the historical pattern of adoption for eight villages in Machakos and Kitui. Adoption was not smooth but involved a number of bursts' or peaks' during which villages went through rapid phases of agricultural intensification. The chapter also describes these periods of heightened intensification activities, and it relates them to certain events. It presents the results of a multivariate analysis, where it estimates the determinants of agricultural intensification in Machakos and Kitui for the 30-year period 196695. The chapter provides a number of simulations to investigate the cumulative impact of the coffee boom at the end of the 1970s on Terrace construction as well as the impact of the development of infrastructure, population density and droughts during this period.
