Consortium media briefing held at ILRI on 1 Sep 2011 on drought in the Horn: Panelists from left to right, Jeff Hill, director of policy in the Bureau of Food Security at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); David Miano Mwangi, assistant director for animal production at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI); and Mark Gordon, co-chair of the UN Somalia Food Cluster at the World Food Programme (WFP), brief the media on ‘Research options for mitigating drought-induced food crises’ at ILRI’s Nairobi campus (photo credit: ILRI/Samuel Mungai).

‘The current famine engulfing the Horn of Africa and threatening the lives of nearly 13 million people continues to dominate discussions about development worldwide. As relief efforts continue, experts and stakeholders from the region have gathered in Nairobi at International Livestock Research Institute, ILRI, to discuss long-term, evidence-based solutions and interventions needed to avert the profound effects of predicted extreme weather events in the future.

‘In an exclusive interview by Africa science News reporter, Dr. David Mwangi Miano, Assistant Director, Animal Production, and an expert at the Kenya agriculture Research Institute, KARI, answered some of the hard questions that dominate in the recurrence of the crisis over and over.

‘Dr Mwangi said the problems seen in the Horn of Africa ought not to be.

‘He said there are new technologies, which can help farmers, become more resilient and food-secure in the face of weather and other shocks. . . .

Experts at the Nairobi meeting say famine has mainly to do with inappropriate policies, conflicts and neglect, which reduce people’s access to food, grazing for livestock, and water for both. . . .

Read the whole article at Africa Science News: Research options for mitigating drought-induced food crises, 1 Sep 2011.