Heat, rain and livestock: Impacts of climate change on Africa’s livestock herders
What’s the future for Africa’s livestock herders as our climate changes, becomes less predictable, heats up? How can scientific research help remote pastoral communities? Among the poorest of the world’s poor, herders supply milk and meat not only for themselves but for large numbers of other poor people. Although their animals produce few of the greenhouse gasses harming the earth, these people will be among those most hurt by the climate changes we expect. Population growth and land degradation are already causing problems over much of the continent’s traditional rangelands.
Herd management and breeding practices of sheep owners in a mixed crop-livestock and a pastoral system of Ethiopia
An exploratory survey was undertaken to understand sheep production system, breeding practices and selection criteria for Ethiopian Menz and Afar sheep breeds in their home tract as a step towards developing sustainable sheep breeding strategies. The mean sheep flock size was 31.6 in Menz and 23.0 in Afar area. Half of the pastoralists (Afar) and one-fifth of smallholder farmers (Menz) do not have a breeding ram. Mating was predominantly uncontrolled. Higher chance of mixing sheep flocks was reported in most of the seasons.
Herders to benefit from livestock insurance
Thousands of livestock herders across the arid North Eastern Kenya can now rest secure, thanks to a new initiative that will shield them against loss of their livestock to drought. For the first time ever, a livestock insurance scheme has been introduced which will make use of satellite images to detect areas that could suffer from livestock loss.
Hope for Kenya's pastoralists: ILRI's Index-Based Livestock Insurance
Indigenous sheep genetic improvement schemes for Ethiopian smallholder farmers and pastoralists
Investing in pastoralism: ILRI speaks with CNBC Africa
ILRI’s Andrew Mude interviewed live on DSTV television on August 24, 2011 by a South African journalist on the drought in the Horn, what can be done to enhance pastoral resilience in this region in the face of recurring droughts, such as his project that is insuring pastoral livestock against drought for the first time.