Category Archives: Food Security

Dairying / Drought / East Africa / Food Security / Livestock Systems / Pastoralism / Pro-Poor Livestock / Somalia / Vulnerability

Snapshot of Somalia: A country dominated by livestock and livestock peoples

Posted on by • Leave a comment

A Somali nomad with his camel on the way to the deep-sea commercial seaport of Berbera, in the Gulf of Aden, in the north, where live sheep, camels and other livestock are exported to the Gulf states (photo on Flickr by Charles Fred). The information below is from the website of Vétérinaires sans Frontières-Germany. ‘Somalia has been … Continue reading →

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

When the last cow dies, the children are next

Posted on by • Leave a comment

A mother in Somalia carries the body of her child, who died of hunger, in the last famine to occur in that country, in 1992 (photo on Flickr by Jerry Mannel Reghunadh). Starving Somali families are waiting till their last animal is dead before making a dangerous trek across the desert to refugee camps. The Los … Continue reading →

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

Fasting and famine: When praying turns to preying

Posted on by • Leave a comment

The new moon, which when sighted begins the Muslim holy month of Ramadan (photo on Flickr by On Being). As Ramadan begins this week, it is estimated that some 1.4 million Somalis are ‘internally displaced’, with an average of more that 12,000 people displaced every month this year due to drought. Most of these people … Continue reading →

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

‘Development aid works’–Look at Ethiopia’s greater resilience in this drought

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Herding in Debub Omo, Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s Region, southern Ethiopia (photo on Flickr by CharlesFred). ‘There is a famine in the Horn of Africa. . . . It is at times like this that we get a lot of half-baked commentary about famine. We are told that the problem is drought, or over-population, or … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Drought / East Africa / Food Security / USA / Vulnerability

Feast and famine in Kenya: The real emergency is lack of aid to help farmers produce more food–Roger Thurow

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Landscape of Kenya (photo on Flickr by Tim Cronin/Center for International Forestry Research). Former Wall Street Journal veteran reporter Roger Thurow, now senior fellow for Global Agriculture and Food Policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, last Friday (29 Jul 2011) described the paradox of great harvest and great hunger existing at the same time … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Eritrea / Ethiopia / Food Security / Nutrition / Pastoralism / Somalia / USA / Vulnerability

Washington Post coverage of Africa’s drought/hunger crisis–From advice on livestock herding to presidential offers of partnership

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Return to traditional agricultural approaches—William G Mosley A recent op-ed in the Washington Post, on the topic of the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, argues that ‘while reactions of grave concern over this unfolding tragedy are natural, its causes are not. . . . The semi-arid Horn of Africa and the entire Sahelian … Continue reading →

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

Early famine warnings in Horn not enough: Early action also needed–Economist

Posted on by • Leave a comment

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) reports on emerging food security conditions related to drought and other climate crises (image on the ReliefWeb website by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United States Agency for International Development Famine Early Warning Systems). The first food to arrive in famine-struck Mogadishu, … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / Europe / Food Security / Ireland / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

Ireland’s longstanding support for Somalia’s poor and its current fight against another ‘Great Hunger’

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Statue commemorating The Great Hunger in 18th-century Ireland (photo on Flickr by munksynz). Carl O’Brian in the Irish Times yesterday (26 Jul 2011) asks: ‘When does a food crisis become a famine?’ Irish journalists, people, government officials and aid agents have a particular passion for fighting famine, which so devastated their country in the mid-1800s, killing … Continue reading →

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

Drought bites harder in pastoral regions of Africa’s Horn

Posted on by • 1 Comment

Map of drought-afflicted areas in the Horn of Africa as of 28 June 2011 (map credit: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, web-posted on the ReliefWeb website). ‘. . . [A]fter the worst drought in 60 years, more than 10m people in the Horn of Africa need emergency food aid. Livestock have … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Biodiversity / CGIAR / Food Security / Indigenous Breeds

Our ‘food ark’ is in trouble, says National Geographic Magazine

Posted on by • Leave a comment

In ILRI’s Forage Genebank on the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa, Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and Jean Hanson, former head of ILRI’s Genebank, examine seed that was sent a few years ago for safe duplicate storage in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located in the Norwegian Arctic Circle (photo … Continue reading →