Category Archives: Drylands

Agriculture / Article / Climate Change / Drylands / East Africa / Kenya / Livelihoods / Pastoralism / Vulnerability / Women

Women playing key role in pastoralist livelihood diversification

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Maasai women in Kenya. Women are playing a key role in pastoralists’ diversification (picture credit: Konrad Glogowski on Flickr).  A feature story carried by IRIN this week highlights how women are playing an increasingly important role in pastoralist livelihoods diversification in Kenya. ‘Along a small seasonal stream in Ewaso Nyiro village in Narok, southwestern Kenya, Leleseina … Continue reading →

Africa / Directorate / Drylands / Environment / ILRI / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

Livestock herding and resource management: Good (natural, rangeland) bedfellows

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Livestock herding in Niger (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). Pastoralism—herding cattle, sheep, goats and other ruminant animals to find new grazing grounds—should be recognized as a key sector in resource management, said experts meeting at a Brussels Development Briefing on Pastoralism held on 22 Feb 2012. ‘Recurring drought and land disputes have recently placed nomadic pastoralists … Continue reading →

CCAFS / Climate Change / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Opinion piece

Are ILRI warnings of continued maize failure in Kenya’s drylands coming true?

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Maize plants in Kenya (photo on Flickr by Vanessa Meadu). ‘There has been a lot of talk, research, and policy documents on climate change and what this portends for the country’s food and even national security. ‘However, not much has been done on the ground to mitigate the effects of climate variability despite the knowledge. … Continue reading →

Africa / Drought / Drylands / Food Security / Forages / Genetics / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

Landscapes of chronic hunger: Eating food aid in empty deserts and desert slums

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Untitled (Desert Landscape), by Salvador Dali, 1934 (source: Wikipaintings.org). Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek has published in Foreign Policy this week a feature article, at times lyrical and elegiac, stemming from a walking trip he and his wife made last August, as a great drought gripped the Horn of Africa, across a part of the arid Turkana … Continue reading →

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

Climatic conditions linked to Horn’s 2011 drought persist–could spell another food crisis

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Somali dust storm (image on Flickr by Frank Keillor). ‘The climatic conditions linked to the drought in the Horn in 2011 have persisted, and some early warning officials say the aid community should brace themselves for a possible re-run of last year’s food crisis. . . . ‘According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Biotechnology / Diagnostics / Disease Control / Drylands / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Environment / Epidemiology / Event / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / Research / RVF / Southern Africa / USA / Zoonotic Diseases

Could Rift Valley fever be a weapon of mass destruction? An insidious insect-animal-people infection loop explored

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The Fifth Plague: Livestock Disease, woodcut by Gustave Doré, 1866 (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons). Anthrax, bird flu , Ebola, HIV-AIDS, H1N1, H5N1, influenza, Rift Valley fever, SARS: What are the disease links between people, animals and environments? And what are we doing to protect ourselves against the next outbreak of a deadly infectious disease? … Continue reading →

Directorate / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Opinion piece / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

Belgian veterinary group message to Bill Gates: Herding livestock makes more sense than growing crops in arid lands

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A herd of livestock cross the drylands near Marsabit town, in northern Kenya; some farmers in the region took out livestock insurance, and this year are receiving the first payouts after a prolonged drought (image on Flickr by Neil Palmer/CIAT). Below is part of an open letter / press release brought out by Vétérinaires Sans … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Food Security / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

United Nations declares famine over in Somalia–but says millions still at risk

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A herd of goats is driven through Ifo Refugee Camp at dawn on 8 Aug 2011; many families said they fled to Dadaab, Kenya, after all of their livestock died because of the drought in Somalia; the dirt road from Garissa to Dadaab was littered with cow and goat skeletons (photo in Flickr by Internews … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Food Security / Mali / Niger / Opinion piece / Pastoralism / Vulnerability / West Africa

Flawed global food systems–not drought–cause of African famines

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Foods of Khulungira Village, in central Malawi (clockwise from top left): nsima (maize meal porridge), kachewere wophika (boiled potatoes), nkhuku yophika (chicken stew), nkhwani ndi phwetekere (pumpkin leaves with tomato), kachewere wokazinga (fried potatoes), and kholowa ndi phwetekere (sweetpotato leaves with tomato) (photo credit: CGIAR/Stevie Mann). All names in Chichewa, Malawi’s national language; translations by Christopher … Continue reading →

Biodiversity / Books and chapters / Drylands / East Africa / Environment / Geodata / ILRI / Kenya / Knowledge and Information / NRM / Policy / Water / Wildlife

ILRI scientists map Kenyan watershed services to benefit people, crops, livestock and wildlife

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A map of land use in the Ewaso Ng’iro watershed, taken from Mapping and Valuing Ecosystem Services in the Ewaso Ng’iro Watershed, published in 2011 by ILRI. From Ecosystem Marketplace comes this review of a new publication from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). ‘. . . As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of floods … Continue reading →