Category Archives: Drylands

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Food Security / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Project / Vulnerability

Remote Kenya livestock herders receive their first drought insurance payouts

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ILRI staff help local livestock herders in Kenya’s Marsabit District understand how they might benefit from a new ‘index-based’ livestock insurance policy scheme, which is providing 650 herders who paid for this insurance with their first payout this month, following the loss of forage due to a drought that hit Marsabit as well as much … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Article / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / Environment / Farming Systems / Food Security / Geodata / ILRI / NRM / Research / WLE

A BIG conversation starts on ways to increase food supplies while protecting environments and eradicating hunger

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An animated 3-minute video clip by the University of Minnesota’s Institute for the Environment. Justin Gillis has published an interesting piece this week in the Green Blog of the New York Times on a big study just published in Nature by Jon Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Environment / Food Security / Kenya / Pastoralism / Presentation / Vulnerability

New presentations on pastoral issues in the Horn of Africa

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The following three slide presentations were presented this August (2011) by scientists working at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, on topics related to sustaining pastoral production systems in the Horn of Africa. In light of the drought ravaging Kenya’s north and the drylands of other countries of Africa’s Horn, the results … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Ethiopia / Event / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

East Africa can–and should–help livestock herders cope better with drought

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Dasanech nomadic homes near Omorate, in southern Ethiopia (photo on Flickr by Carsten ten Brink). Cathy Majtenyi of Voice of America reported on meetings in Nairobi this week to look at options for mitigating drought-induced food shortages. They say pastoralism is the best land-use practice in the region’s drylands and are looking at ways to help … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

Mobile herding remains a productive and sustainable use of drylands

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A Dinka cattle camp at sunset in Abyei, Sudan; the Sudanese Dinka people migrate north with 5,000 of their cattle from Warrap State to Abyei when floods hit their grazing area (photo on Flickr by UN/Tim McKulka). Migratory herding is one of the most productive uses of drylands, says the Kenyan newspaper the Daily Nation. The … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Report / Vulnerability

Free livestock movements and viable livestock markets help pastoralists cope with droughts in Horn

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Watering camels in a makeshift trough on the road from Wajir to Garissa, in northeast Kenya; herders are taking advantage of the rains to water their livestock after a long period of drought (photo on Flickr by Ann Weru/IRIN). The New Agriculturist this month reports on a recent study by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Film and video / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Pro-Poor Livestock / Somalia / Vulnerability

ILRI scientist Andrew Mude interviewed on CNBC Africa television: ‘Increase investments in the pastoral livelihood’

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Andrew Mude of ILRI receives the best practice award for an Index-based Livestock Insurance project in northern Kenya that he leads (image from The Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network [PEGnet] conference in Midrand, South Africa, 2–3 Sep 2010). As hunger spreads among more than 12 million people in the Horn of Africa, a study … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Livestock Systems / Pastoralism / West Africa

What future of pastoralism in a changing climate?

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Pastoralism—a free-range livestock production system—is practised in all of Africa’s dryland regions, and in some communities it is the main source of food security and income. But will pastoralism survive in the changing climate? The August 2011 issue of Joto Afrika provides research findings, lessons learned and success stories from across Africa. Contents include: The future … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Film and video / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

Insured livestock keepers in Kenya may receive first insurance payments

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In Kenya’s drylands, drought has always been the greatest hazard faced by livestock herding families. Modern pressures are making this situation worse. This film tells the story of a research project started in 2007, which in 2010 introduced a new form of insurance to remote herding peoples who had never been provided with insurance before. … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Eritrea / Ethiopia / Kenya / Pastoralism / Pro-Poor Livestock / Somalia / Vulnerability

‘Nothing works as well as pastoralism in dryland areas’–Simon Levine, ODI

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Nine-year-old livestock herder near Kitengela town, outside Nairobi, at the height of the 2008–2009 drought in this region; dryland peoples in East Africa are both restricted and marginalized (photo on Flickr by Jeff Haskins). Simon Levine says in an opinion piece in the New Agriculturist this month that the current famine in the Horn of … Continue reading →