Rural livelihoods are vulnerable in ASAL Kenya. Agroclimatic conditions are uncertain, infrastructure and services are poorly developed. Sources of subsistence are limited and there are few opportunities for generating cash income within existing livelihood systems. The majority of households are poor and lack opportunities to expand or improve their resource base. Tree products make a major contribution: they provide both subsistence items and cash income, and have been demonstrated to play an especially important role for poor farmers and women. Most cash income is obtained from wood products, especially charcoal and polewood, and there are currently few markets in NWTP. Where sales of tree products take place, the vast majority on income accrues to middlemen and professional marketing bodies rather than to the farmers who grow them. Farmers realise low rates of income from trees because there is only a small value added at the household level, the prices they receive are low and markets in NWTP are undeveloped. There is much potential for the development of NWTP for sale, and for the development of small-scale local-based processing and marketing. This need has been identified as a priority by farmers themselves as well as government, research institutes and donor agencies.

To examine the use of non-wood tree products (NWTP). Research will focus both on demonstrating the value of NWTP use for farmers, and on finding ways in which they can capture and maximise these values through the market.

• Methods and measures for assessing the value of tree products in household production and livelihood in relation to household needs and priorities.
• Understanding of local technical knowledge and property regimes relating to management and use of tree resources.
• Identification of high value NWTPs and markets.
• Identification of marketing channels and means of increasing share of value of NWTP captured by smallholders.