Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet blog.

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 governments and agribusiness to cross-breed native cattle breeds with exotic breeds, pastoralists are struggling to feed their families and hold on to their culture.

The key, however, to maintaining the pastoralist way of life, at least in Kenya, may also be the key to preserving the country's livestock genetic biodiversity, as well as improving local food security."Governments need to recognize," says Jacob Wanyama, coordinator with the African LIFE Network in Kenya- an organization that works to improve the rights of pastoralist communities in Eastern Africa, "that pastoralists are the best keepers of genetic diversity." (See also: The Keepers of Genetic Diversity)

Anikole cattle, for example, a breed indigenous to Eastern Africa, are not only "beautiful to look at," says Wanyama, but they're one of the "highest quality" breeds of cattle because they can survive in extremely harsh, dry conditions-something that's more important than the size and milk production of the cattle, especially as climate change takes a bigger hold on Africa. And indigenous breeds don't require expensive feed and inputs, such as antibiotics to keep them healthy.

More than just a consistent and reliable source of food, Anikole cattle also help preserve the pastoralist culture and way of life. Though most pastoralists recognize that  many of their children might choose to go into the cities instead of continuing the nomadic herding lifestyle of pastoralists, the preservation of Anikole cattle and other indigenous breeds will allow those that choose to stay to feed and support their families and community for years to come. (See also: Maintaining Links to Tradition in a Changing World)

And, similarly, in Mozambique, the International Rural Poultry Center of the Kyeema Foundation and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics are promoting livestock as more than just a means to improve food security.

The two organizations are partnering to work with farmers-most of them women-to raise chickens on their farms. Because women are often the primary caregivers for family members with HIV/AIDS, they need easy, low-cost sources of both food and income. Unlike many crops, raising free-range birds can require few outside inputs and very little maintenance from farmers. Birds can forage for insects and eat kitchen scraps, instead of expensive grains. They provide not only meat and eggs for household use and income, but also pest control and manure for fertilizer. (See also: Prescribing Improved Nutrition to Combat HIV/AIDS in Africa)

In Rwanda, Heifer International is helping farmers use livestock to rebuild their homes and improve their income after the devastating genocide that occurred 15 years ago.  Heifer began working in Rwanda in 2000, introducing a South African dairy breed, known for its high milk production, because, according to Dr. Karamuzi, "no stock of good [dairy cow] genes" was left in the country after the genocide.

And he says that these animals help prove "that even poor farmers can take care of high producing cows." Heifer has certain conditions for receiving cows-including that farmers build a pen and dedicate part of their land to growing pasture-which made people skeptical, especially when they were used to letting animals roam freely to graze on grass. But as people began seeing the results of Heifer's training, they become less suspicious and more interested in working with the group.

And these animals don't only provide milk-which can be an important source of protein for the hungry-and income to families. They also provide manure, which provides not only fertilizer for crops, but also is now helping provide biogas for cooking to households raising cows in the country as part of a the National Biogas Program. And they give families a sense of security as they, and the entire country, continue to recover and rebuild. (See also: Healing With Livestock in Rwanda)

To read more about how smallscale livestock can improve food security and preserve and rebuild communities, see: Teacher Turned Farmer. . .Turned Teacher, Got Biogas?, Conserving Endangered Animal Genetic Resources in Kenya.

Photo Credit: International Livestock Research Institute

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Crossposted from BorderJumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

Our entry begins in Maralal, Kenya, a place mostly known for its wildlife. And as we made the seven hour, bumpy trek from Nairobi—half of it on unpaved roads—we saw our fair share of water buffaloes, rhinos, impala, and giraffes. But we weren’t here to go on safari. We were here to meet with a group of pastoralists—livestock keepers who had agreed to meet with us and talk about the challenges they face.

Although most of these people don’t have access to cable TV or even radios, they do have a good sense of the challenges their fellow livestock keepers face all over Kenya. They are aware that climate change is likely responsible for the drought plaguing much of East Africa, killing thousands of livestock over the last few months. They know that conflict with neighboring pastoral communities over water resources and access to land makes headlines in Kenya’s newspapers. And they know that many policy-makers would like to forget they exist and consider their nomadic lifestyle barbaric, as our guide Dr. Pat Lanyasunya, a member of the Africa LIFE Network, explained.

What surprised me most about these livestock keepers is their understanding that the world is changing. They know that many of their children won’t live the same kind of lives that their ancestors lived for centuries. Many will choose to go to the cities, but they said if their children become “landed,” they want them to maintain links to the pastoralist way of life.

Speaking of the ‘big” city, Nairobi, we had some unforgettable site visits there. Driving through the crowded streets of Kibera, (an urban slum in Nairobi), it's nearly impossible to describe how many people live in this area of about 225 hectares, the equivalent of just over half the size of Central Park in Manhattan. Anywhere from 700,000 to a million people live in what is likely the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa--it's hard to count the exact number here because people don't own the land where they live and work, making their existence a very tenuous one. Often people are evicted from their homes (most of them wooden shacks with tin roves) because the city government doesn't want to recognize that Kibera exists. But it does. And despite the challenges people here face-lack of water and sanitation services and lack of land ownership are the big ones-they are also thriving.

We met a "self help" group of women farmers in Kibera, who are growing food for their families and selling the surplus. These groups are present all over Kenya-giving youth, women, and other groups the opportunity to organize, share information and skills, and ultimately improve their well-being.

The women we met are raising vegetables on what they call "vertical farms." But instead of skyscrapers, these farms are in tall sacks, filled with dirt, and the women grow crops in them on different levels by poking holes in the bags and planting seeds. They received training, seeds, and sacks from the French NGO Soladarites to start their sack gardens.

The women told us that more than 1,000 of their neighbors are growing food in a similar way-something that Red Cross International recognized during 2007 and 2008 when there was conflict in the slums of Nairobi. No food could come into these areas, but most residents didn't go without food because so many of them were growing crops-in sacks, vacant land, or elsewhere.</p>

These small gardens can yield big benefits in terms of nutrition, food security, and income. All the women told us that they saved money because they no longer had to buy vegetables at the store and they claimed they taste better because they were organically grown-but it also might come from the pride that comes from growing something themselves.

When we got to the union office in Kerecho, Kenya, union officials were elated to see the staff of the Solidarity Center. Over the last couple of months, more than 6,000 tea workers joined the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU). To help them win more members-and continue to grow-the Solidarity Center provides resources to hire organizers, conduct trainings, and offer communications and transportation support, according to KPAWU branch secretary Joshua Owuor Maywen.

The union, despite having more than 200,000 members in the agriculture sector and representing some of the most vulnerable workers, has still lost density over the last two decades. During this time, companies are trying whatever they can to cut costs, including implementing child labor, mechanizing the plucking industry--according to one of the workers: "the machines pluck everything including snakes and spiders, while the tea pluckers pluck tea"-and hiring casuals or "temporary" workers at lower wages and reduced benefits.

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Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

In this regular series, we profile advisors to the Nourishing the Planet project. This week, we feature Jacob Wanyama, coordinator with the African LIFE Network.

Name: Jacob Wanyama

Affiliation: African LIFE Network

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Bio: Jacob Wanyama is a coordinator with the African LIFE Network in Kenya, an organization that works to increase rights for pastoralist communities. He has been working for pastoralist peoples for nearly two decades with organizations such as Practical Action (formerly ITDG) and Veternaires Sans Frontiers (VSF).

What is the nature of the problem that you and the LIFE Network are dealing with in pastoralist communities? Pastoralists mostly depend on producing livestock. These communities have produced certain breeds for centuries. These animals are suited to the environment and they are critical to the cultural and economic survival of the pastoralists in these harsh environments. But because of conflict, drought, and other environmental problems in the area, it is becoming harder for pastoralists to maintain their way of life. There is a lack of services and infrastructure in these communities. They are very low on the opportunity ladder, and in Kenya especially the pastoralist communities don’t get government services or support.

Another problem is that government programs in these areas have often discouraged or destroyed what communities have been doing. Because of the need to produce food quickly, many governments have promoted replacing indigenous breeds that are considered to be inferior because they don’t produce a lot of meat. The government has encouraged pastoralists to breed local breeds with exotic breeds or to just replace the local breed. The problem is that the new breed is not used to the region. This has gone on for many years, so now many indigenous breeds are disappearing. The world is losing roughly one livestock breed every week.

This is the case in many areas where livestock are kept. In Africa, India, Mongolia, pastoralists are not given a chance to maintain their breeds of indigenous livestock, and therefore the world is losing many sources of animal genetic diversity. These animals are the only way of using these very dry and harsh areas, which otherwise could not support communities. So, many pastoralists are giving up their way of life. They can’t feed their families anymore.

What are some of the grassroots strategies the LIFE Network has used to help these communities? We try to create awareness among pastoralists. They have been getting misinformation and discouragement from the government. So we spend time with them and tell them, “what you have and what you had is very valuable. You are providing an important service not just to yourself but to the world. You have the right to demand recognition.” We also tell them that they should base decisions about what types of livestock they breed on knowledge. We need to strengthen these communities and give them the tools to make their own decisions. We also assist pastoralists in documenting what they have and then we work with lawyers to formulate statements that demand government development in their communities.

How do you attract national or international attention to these issues? We try to raise this issue with different governments. We’ve been able to speak to the governments of Kenya, Botswana, and Uganda. These governments, though, don’t seem to understand the unique position of the pastoralists and where they need to be. Some countries have moved a step forward, though. Kenya, Uganda, and India have developed institutions and ministries that are mandated to address pastoralists. But that has not meant that things have changed in terms of food and conservation. These governments are still focused on settled people. In Tanzania, the situation is even worse. The Tanzanian government says that it is difficult to provide services to pastoralists, since they move around so much, and encourages pastoralists to settle. But, if you settle them and reduce the number of livestock they have, you have a situation in which pastoralists have nothing to do. A lot of them end up destitute.

But we look for ways to ensure that people’s rights are assured. We want to facilitate the market for livestock keepers and figure out how to document their breeds as a way of making the governments pay attention. One of the things communities need to do is set up their rules and demands to their countries and the international community. They need to say what action they think is appropriate for these communities to be respected.

 

 

 

Communities in transition throughout Africa are at a critical crossroads. Rapid technological change, rising population, and growing urbanization, along with the impact of climate change on the continent, present a number of challenges to communities. And unfortunately the development groups, aid agencies, and local governments do not make this easy.

Spend a week in a small settlement of pastoralists in Northern Kenya and the confusing realities of change become quite clear.

Day 1: Agricultural extension workers enter the community and hold workshops on how to make the shift from pastoralism to sedentary farming. They fence off a small plot of land that used to be grass, plow the soil and tear up the land, and plant tomatoes, corn, paw-paw trees, and cabbage. They leave the plot in the hands of the community as an example of what they might do and head home to the district capital. It has not rained here in over a year and the plants will surely die.

Day 2: An environmental committee has come to the settlement to talk about the importance of preserving trees on the mountains above the village to solve the water problem by allowing moisture to sink into the soil and recharge the rivers. At the meeting, under a large acacia tree, people nod their heads and talk about the importance of trees as they sip tea made with camel milk. A few young men from the committee are chosen as stewards to watch over the trees.

Day 3: A missionary from a nearby town comes to the settlement to solve the water problem in another way:  he drills a borehole directly down into the water table that the preservation of the trees was meant to recharge. He does not notice the other three idle pumps nearby, former attempts to pull water out of the ground before they pulled it all out.

Day 4: A committee comes to talk about grazing management in the community and talking with the elders of the village they work on a plan for livestock management to regenerate and rest the rangelands so there will be a reserve of grass when the next dry season comes. They make an outline in the sand of which areas of the mountain will be closed to livestock during which months, and choose leaders to pass the information on to the community.

Day 5: A group trying to improve the lives of pastoralists by distributing livestock arrives. They hand out animals to people living in the grazing areas that the meeting the previous day just closed.

Day 6: A new development groups arrives and uses new participatory methods to try and figure out what the community wants and needs and how best they can help. During the middle of their discussion a relief truck full of bags of maize, tins of cooking oil, and sacks of beans arrives.  Everyone gets up and leaves to collect the free food.

Day 7: No one comes to meetings today. As one old man explained, "It is too confusing. They want to know what we want, but they don't know what they want. I am going to see my cows."

Brendan Buzzard is a contributor to Nourishing the Planet. A writer and conservationist, he works and travels widely while focusing on the link between human prosperity and landscape integrity. He has a degree in Geography and Environment from Prescott College.

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Uganda, like Tanzania and Kenya, has a rich history of pastoralism. For centuries, nomadic herders have bred and raised cattle to withstand the region's high temperatures and low rainfall. But because of expanding wildlife areas and national parks for wildlife conservation and tourism, and an effort to "modernize," pastoralists--and the indigenous breeds of cattle they raise--are in danger of going extinct." In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that almost one breed of cattle goes extinct every month. In Uganda, the population of Ankole cattle--which is resistant to disease and can withstand high temperatures--is declining rapidly as livestock keepers switch to more exotic breeds.

But the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa(PENHA) is trying to "bridge the gap between policy-makers and pastoralists," says Elizabeth Katushabe, a program officer with PENHA. She says that often the government has been "biased" against nomadic pastoralists. Although many political leaders come from pastoralist communities, many are supporting policies that drive herders and livestock keepers off the land. But Ms. Katushabe says by holding meetings and workshops with Parliamentary leaders and pastoralists, PENHA is "trying to put it into their [policy makers] hearts to protect pastoralists." And their efforts are paying off.

Although the government has encouraged livestock keepers to raise Freesian cattle because they produce more milk, they've also worked with the Ankole Cow Conservation Association, through the Ugandan Wildlife Authority, to allow some herders to bring Ankole cattle into national parks to graze, helping conserve and protect the cattle as well as the livestock keepers' way of life.

But it's not only government leaders that PENHA has to convince. They also have to persuade poverty-stricken herding communities that herding can be profitable. Ms. Katushabe says "poverty is PENHA's biggest challenge." These communities think that the only way to make money is to adopt exotic breeds of cattle, but PENHA is helping to change that attitude by building a market for indigenous breeds. PENHA is hoping to start radio programs that will educate herders and consumers alike about the nutritional qualities of the meat and milk from indigenous breeds, including leaner meat and milk with higher butter content.

In addition, PENHA emphasizes the role herders can play in protecting the environment--their rotational grazing practices can help protect wildlife, sequester carbon in soils, and preserve biodiversity.

PENHA is also working to mobilize women's groups. Most women aren't allowed to own their own livestock, but PENHA is training women to raise goats, which men don't think are important. The goats provide not only food and milk, but an important source of income and empowerment to women.

By giving livestock keepers a voice, PENHA is helping ensure that indigenous breeds of cattle and the pastoralist way of life don't go extinct.

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