For thousands of years, pastoralists in the horn of Africa have built a rich culture that revolves around herding livestock across vast, barren, yet picturesque tracts of land.
They have established a long history of managing livestock as a productive, sustainable economic enterprise on lands that, even before the modern-day surge of droughts, were too arid to support crop production.
However, the system that has supported the pastoralists for centuries in this part of the continent, is increasingly getting disrupted due to direct impacts of climate change that has left a trail of death and destruction in most places.
During a regional workshop held in Nakuru, experts from Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia noted that government agencies, development partners and private sector players in the Horn of Africa need to channel more effort and resources towards initiatives that will improve livelihoods of pastoralist communities through building on market driven, climate smart innovations and sustainable landscape management.
The workshop that had the theme ‘Empowering pastoral markets, transforming livelihoods for a resilient Africa’ was convened by the African Union – Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) through the African Pastoral Markets Development (APMD) and brought together technical specialists, government officials, representatives of pastoral communities and regional research and lobby entities from the three countries.
In her presentation, the African Women in Animal Resources Farming and Agribusiness Network (AWARFA-N) Vice President Ms Lydia Mworia said new strategies must be sought to conserve biodiversity in arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) in the region, which she noted will require forward thinking, new technologies, research and more importantly deploying the research to communities so that they can utilize it.
She indicated that pastoralists can avert losses by commercializing their livestock, which means selling some animals during good condition to avoid the greater losses caused by drought and food scarcity.
“This proactive “destocking” allows them to get better prices, reduce the pressure on limited resources like pasture and water, and still have funds to buy animals back after the drought has eased. Commercializing also helps meet immediate needs and can prevent resource-based conflicts,” she stated.
Ms Mworia proposed that market-led fodder production and livestock feeding innovations are needed to scale productivity and expand opportunities within the livestock sector in ASAL regions.
“Herding a large number of animals as a means of livelihood, is one of the oldest and potentially sustainable systems if properly managed. However, without proper commercialization plans and good grazing management strategies, this soon fails and becomes cause for desperate times for pastoral communities,” she noted.
Available data shows that Agriculture contributes 26 percent to Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with livestock as the main contributor in ASAL regions.
About 90 percent of family income and employment in these areas comes from livestock. But the sector is grappling with multiple challenges.
Land is often overgrazed and overstocked, human population growth yields competition for land use between agricultural activities and livestock while soil fertility is declining, and climate change- including prolonged droughts and floods pose threats to both the vulnerable populations and the herds.
The AWARFA-N Vice President pointed out that the effects of climate change in the Horn of Africa were being aggravated by the lack of coordinated effort by governments, private sector and those owning large tracts of land in the form of conservancies.
Ms Mworia hailed the Kenyan government for its efforts to put in place policy frameworks and environment to enable pastoralists to have better livelihoods.
“We need to continue encouraging these communities to increase their uptake of certified forage seeds and vegetative planting material not to mention uptake of commercial forage production for improved livelihoods,” she added.
The African Women in Animal Resources Farming and Agribusiness Network (AWARFA-N) is a network established in 2018 by the African Union InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources to empower women in Africa’s animal resources sector through platforms for networking, capacity building, advocacy and support for entrepreneurship.
It works to advance gender equality by creating regional and national chapters that unite women involved in animal farming and agribusiness, helping them overcome barriers and gain greater economic and social transformation.
Ms Mworia stated that pastoralists must shift their reliance on unpredictable rainfall and be supported to adopt diversified livelihoods and modern water management techniques such as rainwater harvesting, utilizing abundant solar energy to draw water from underground aquifers, building barrages across sandy riverbeds to capture runoff for farming and adoption of technologies like drip irrigation and soil moisture sensors to improve water use efficiency for cultivating drought-tolerant crops.
She further noted that climate change and overgrazing were new challenges threatening the existence of Kenya’s grasslands and rangelands.
Ms Mworia said the situation was being aggravated by a growing population that is looking for more settlement areas, most of which are found within these grasslands and rangelands.
She observed that in Kenya, grassland covers 83 per cent of the land, supporting 70 per cent of livestock and 83 per cent of wildlife, and there are over 10 million people living in these areas.
Data from the Department of Livestock shows that the rangelands support about 70 per cent of the national livestock population and 90 per cent of wildlife that is vital to the tourism industry.
While stating that Kenya’s Government has put in place a five-year Strategic Plan to manage and develop grassland and rangeland whose implementation is projected to cost approximately Sh9 billion, the AWARFA-N Vice President challenged County Governments to include in their County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs) strategies aimed at sustainable use and management of grasslands and rangelands.
She emphasized that pastoralists need to be proactive in responding to droughts and floods, as traditional methods are increasingly strained by climate change. Proactive strategies Ms Mworia added should focus on early warning systems, securing livestock insurance to protect against heavy financial losses during severe droughts and conservation and storage of feeds.
Ms Mworia however expressed concern that cultural norms and long-held practices continue to hinder women’s participation across the livestock value chain in the Horn of Africa, limiting their roles in feed production, trade, and marketing despite a growing demand for their input.
She noted that in pastoral communities across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, traditions and inheritance systems frequently deny women land ownership rights, restricting their control over this critical factor of production.
“Women in the Horn of Africa rarely have a voice in land matters despite their central role in pastoralism, agriculture, food sovereignty, and biodiversity conservation. We advocate for a percentage of unused government land to be set aside for women and youth to do farming activities,” she added.
Ms. Mworia stated that this proposed affirmative action would give women a fair chance to participate fully in the livestock pastoralism value chain by removing long-standing barriers, allowing women to expand their enterprises.
Experts at the workshop said reforms should not only focus on revising laws but also on recognizing women’s roles and stewardship in livestock systems, which would create a more inclusive and resilient livestock sector.
Professor Ahmed Elbeltagy, APMD Platform Policy Pillar Lead, emphasized that the resilience of Africa’s pastoralist systems, the productivity of the livestock sector, and the prosperity of millions of pastoral households depend on the decisions and commitments made today.
“Feed security is fundamental to pastoralism, livestock productivity, cross-border trade, and regional stability. Strengthening this foundation is essential for pastoral communities to continue contributing meaningfully to national economies and sustaining their rich cultural and ecological heritage,” he stated.
He reaffirmed that the region faces growing pressures from cultural norms, recurrent droughts, land degradation, climate variability, and inconsistent policy implementation, all of which threaten livestock productivity, market competitiveness, and livelihoods.
The forum aimed to review progress in implementing continental and regional feed and rangeland policies, identify gaps and opportunities for coordinated action, strengthen private sector involvement in feed production and trade, and develop a unified regional feed and rangeland security roadmap.
Workshop’s outcomes will inform the creation of an AU feed security coordination task force, translating policy coherence into tangible impact. Additionally, the best practices, policy briefs, and private sector frameworks developed will guide lasting continental action.
“These outcomes will create a clearer path to tackle the barriers women face in the sector, helping them access resources, benefit from policies, and take part fully and fairly across the livestock value chain,” said Professor Ahmed.
by Jane Ngugi and Dennis Rasto
