Jeff Hill directs policy for the Bureau of Food Aid at the United States Agency for International Development. He says arid and semi-arid lands represent about eighty percent of the Horn of Africa. Livestock-based economies in these areas provide up to forty percent of agricultural production in Ethiopia and fifty percent in Kenya. And in Somalia, Mr. Hill says, the percentage is even higher.
JEFF HILL: “In Somalia, livestock systems fuel the economy.”
An estimated ninety percent of the meat eaten in East Africa comes from pastoralist herds.
Mr. Hill says Kenya and other governments have only recently recognized the value of arid and semi-arid lands. These lands have often been excluded from government planning and road building. Herders can face limited access to grazing and watering areas.
Researcher David Mwangi says communities need to be creative with the resources they have. He says a good example is a project in Kenya in which grass is grown in the desert to feed livestock.
DAVID MWANGI: “What would happen if we developed a system where we grow fodder and pasture along the river and the animals are taken off from the range and finished nearer to the market? What we need is a system, and that is what has been really lacking.”
He also says more efforts need to be put into raising camels. Camels are often the only animals that produce milk during a drought.
And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson with Cathy Majtenyi. I’m Jim Tedder.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25