South Africa must build bottom-up needs-based policies for communal livestock grazing. ‘Nothing about us without us!’ It’s a popular slogan in development work and one that agricultural policymakers should embrace to ensure their decisions address rural communities’ needs. Recent experience with communal cattle keeping in South Africa is again providing valuable lessons on why and … Continue reading
Category Archives: Pastoralism
Africa / Drought / East Africa / Environment / Kenya / Livestock Systems / Pastoralism
Maasai pastoralists adopt new habits to cope with climate change
As they recover from the worst drought in many years, Maasai pastoralists in Kenya’s south Rift Valley are adopting new habits to help them overcome future disasters. As the recent drought tested the coping ability of Maasai communities, the leaders of “group ranches” – large communal grazing areas, each with their own government-appointed chief – … Continue reading
Africa / Animal Production / Biodiversity / East Africa / Indigenous Breeds / Livestock Systems / Pastoralism
Using livestock to rebuild and preserve communities
For pastoralist communities like the well-known Maasai in Kenya, livestock keeping is more than just an important source of food and income; it’s a way of life that has been a part of their culture and traditions for hundreds of years. But, in the face of drought, loss of traditional grazing grounds, and pressure from … Continue reading
Africa / Animal Production / Climate Change / Drought / Food Security / Livestock / Niger / Pastoralism / West Africa
Millions face hunger in arid belt of Africa
At this time of year, the Gadabeji Reserve in Niger should be refuge for the nomadic tribes who travel across a moonscape on the edge of the Sahara to graze their cattle. But the grass is meager after a drought killed off the last year’s crops. Now the cattle are too weak to stand and … Continue reading
Somalia: Somaliland needs own plan for climate change
The human and environmental disruption wreaked by drought in Somaliland, where more than 60 percent of people raise livestock for a living, means the self-declared, but barely recognized, independent state should draw up its own plan for climate change adaptation, according to a new report. The Impact of Climate Change on Pastoral Societies of Somaliland, … Continue reading
Africa / Climate Change / Drought / East Africa / French / Kenya / Pastoralism
ACTED améliore les capacités de résistance au changement climatique dans l’ouest du Kenya
ACTED répond à la crise alimentaire dans l’est du Pokot en conduisant des opération de soutien aux moyens de subsistance et de protection des ressources naturelles dans le district de Churo, avec le soutien financier d’OFDA et d’USAID. Après 9 mois de projet, les communautés ont grandement amélioré leur resistance à la sécheresse et à … Continue reading
Africa / Animal Health / East Africa / Kenya / Pastoralism / Tanzania
Improving animal health in East Africa
In this podcast from the London International Development Centre, four vets describe the challenges affecting livestock within pastoralist communities in East Africa and explain an exciting project to monitor disease by using mobile phones. Dr Ezra Saitoti and Dr Paul Chacha, both field vets for the charity Vetaid, discuss how this innovative technology will help … Continue reading
Africa / Camels / East Africa / Livelihoods / Livestock / Pastoralism / Tanzania
Heifer Camel project: A resounding success to Maasai community in Tanzania
They are huge, bulky and strong! They are disease-tolerant and can survive drought by browsing on leaves on trees that other livestock cannot eat. These are camels! Following severe long droughts that hit northeastern part of Tanzania in the last couple of years, a group of Maasai women of Ketumbeine village in Longido district, Arusha … Continue reading
Nigeria: Climate change and food challenge
Climate change has gradually dominated discussion in almost every country of the world because of the challenge it poses to the survival of individuals and whole nations. In recent times, whole countries have been threatened by changes in climatic conditions ranging from draught, delayed rainfall, continuous melting of the polar region causing severe flood in … Continue reading
Climate change increasing poverty and vulnerability in Ethiopia
Small-scale farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia are likely to bear the brunt of the negative impacts of climate change in the region, which will include increased poverty, water scarcity, and food insecurity, according to a new Oxfam International report released today. The international development agency’s report, “The Rain Doesn’t Come on Time Anymore: Poverty, Vulnerability, … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 