Impact of Fuelwood Consumption by Three Tea Factories on Environment and on-Farm Tree Production in Kangema Sub-County, Muranga County, Kenya

The tropical forest loss is increasing by 2, 101 km2 per year. The factors causing the increasing tropical forest loss include agro-industrial development and exploitation of fuelwood by many countries. The role of human involvement in the deforestation situation in Africa cannot be understated. Studies carried out in Kenya show that most of the Tea factories rely on fuelwood for their energy requirements. This forces them to heavily contribute to the felling down of trees in the quest of meeting energy demands. The study sought to determine the impact of fuelwood demand by three tea factories on environment and On-farm tree production in Kangema Sub-county. The objective that guided the study was to determine the effects of fuelwood consumption by the three tea factories on the environment and on-farm tree production. The study employed a descriptive research design. The study target population was the Tea farmers in Kangema Sub-county. The study had a sample size of two hundred and ninety farmers and six key informants. Increased consumption of on-farm trees had serious effects on the environment. Exploitation of on-farm tree production and and the approximate portion of land with trees showed that there was a significance correlation thus the null hypothesis was rejected. The study recommended that tea factories should be regulated and forced by way of the statute to diversify their energy sources. The tea factories should equally be forced by the county governments to grow trees as a replacement measure in the harvested areas. This would positively impact on the tree replacement rates by the tea factories. Sensitization by the statutory environmental organs on the need to practice On-farm tree production to attain the requisite ten percent tree cover should also be done.