Search Results for: 2011 drought in horn

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

Satellite images trigger insurance payouts to poor livestock herders in Kenya’s northern dryland frontier

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Andrew Mude (right), a scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, explains the livestock insurance payouts made last week to resource-poor livestock herders in Kenya’s Marsabit District in the wake of a great drought in the Horn of Africa that dried up the available forage on Marsabit’s rangelands and caused the … Continue reading →

Books and chapters / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / Environment / Food Security / Geodata / Insurance / Livestock-Water / NRM / Pastoralism / Vulnerability / Water / Wildlife / WLE

Rethinking drylands: Time to unlock their (big, neglected) potential

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A herd of livestock near Marsabit town, in Kenya’s remote northern pastoral drylands (image on Flickr by Neil Palmer/CIAT). It’s time to unlock the potential of the world’s drylands, which cover more than one-third of the earth and are home to a third of humanity, half of whom—one billion—live in poverty and hunger. The current famine … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Production / Burkina Faso / Crop-Livestock / Ghana / ILRI / Intensification / Livelihoods / Livestock / Livestock Systems / NRM / Opinion piece / Research / Water / West Africa / WLE

The triple challenge facing livestock research for development in Africa

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For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Tim Williams – Africa Director at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) reflects on ILRI’s livestock work in West Africa … Two key questions Back in 2000, two key questions occupied the minds of those of us who worked on the development of the ILRI’s Strategy–Livestock: … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability / Wildlife

Maasai livestock herders in Kenya paid to conserve the wildlife that share their rangelands

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Nairobi cityscape in the background of Nairobi National Park (photo on Flickr by Luigi Guarino). ‘As pastoralists in the North Rift grapple with the drought that has affected more than 12 million East Africans, a new model to pay the residents for conserving the ecosystem in reserves and parks is helping them to diversify income … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Event / Food Security / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

First-ever livestock insurance payouts made in Marsabit

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At a village meeting last Friday in Dirib Gombo, in Kenya’s northern Marsabit District, farmers who took out livestock insurance receive their first payout after a prolonged drought here and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa (photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT). ‘An innovative insurance scheme to help East African farmers recover from the devastating drought is … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Food Security / Kenya / Livelihoods / Livestock / Nutrition / Pastoralism / Presentation / Somalia / Vulnerability

Livestock critical to livelihoods and life in Africa – USAID advisor

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Kenya cow bell, on loan from Gary K Clarke, of Cowabunga Safaris, for Africa Everyday Exhibit (image credit: Topeka & Shawnee Country Public Library). Livestock keeping means food security and livelihoods for the world’s poorest people. That’s the message delivered by Joyce Turk, senior livestock advisor at the United States Agency for International Development, at … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Drought / East Africa / Film and video / Food Security / Kenya / Vulnerability

Small farmers are productive farmers, if given the right support–de Schutter

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Watch this 6-minute ILRI film about a previous drought that devastated much of East Africa in 2008–2009. In Kenya, the Kitengela Maasai pastoral rangelands south of Nairobi, and the hot and dry crop-livestock farming district of Kitui further east, experienced many of the worst effects, including reports of the deaths of up to half of … 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 / Camels / Cattle / CCAFS / Climate Change / Goats / ILRI / Kenya / Small Ruminants

Climate change causing plant and animal species to move poleward, away from equator

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These camels in northern Kenya are part of a large herd that will cover dozens of kilometres in search of water (photo on Flickr by Ann Weru/IRIN). USA Today reports on a new paper in the prestigious journal Science that increasing temperatures are pushing plant and animal species to move uphill and northward at much … 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 →