Effects of selected drought management strategies on livestock production in Isiolo county, Kenya

Abstract

Global warming and consequential climate changes are contemporary challenges in the world. Drought is a natural part of climate, although it may be erroneously considered as a race and random event. It occurs in virtually all climatic zones, but its characteristic varies significantly from one region to another. Over 80% of Kenya land mass fall under arid and semi arid land (ASAL), which are prone to frequent droughts. Livestock contributes heavily to Kenya’s agriculture with respect to gross domestic product and food security of its population. It also provides, in part, the necessary thrust for other forms of development in the country ASALs mainly involving pastoralists’ and agro-pastoralist who for the most part depend on livestock for the their living. The long term effects of droughts on pastoralists’ are through decreased food security and lost bargaining power. Droughts are known to have short term and long term effects on pastoralists. The short term effects are the shocks caused by the heavy losses of animals due to a drastic and abrupt decline of grazing resources thereby exposing the pastoralists to severe transient food insecurity. Diverse livestock related interventions have been tried in Kenya. However it has not been effective in mitigating livestock loss since there is continued loss of livestock during drought. The purpose of this study was to assess effects of drought management strategies used to improve livestock production during drought in Isiolo County. Five research objectives will guide the study. The objectives sought to determine the Veterinary intervention measures used to improve production during drought in Isiolo County; assess the effectiveness of supplementary feeding on livestock production in Isiolo County; to assess the management strategies carried out by the government like training of farmers, extension services and disease control in Isiolo County; determine the effectiveness of water provision during drought in pastoral sector in Isiolo County and lastly establish how effective is destocking on livestock production in Isiolo County. The sample was 6 government line officials, 5 NGO officials 5 veterinary officials, 4 community leaders and 204 farmers. In total the sample size was 224. Descriptive study design will be adopted and data will be analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively by use of statistical package for social sciences. It was concluded from the study that majority of the farmers practice destocking and that they did it timely and by so doing they realized value addition from the practice. It is also concluded that herders have been provided with veterinary services for the last five years such as community based para-veterinary services. The study further established that half of the pastoralist had reliable water while the other half had no reliable source of water. Finally, its concluded that there are supplementary livestock feeding thought the financial allocation was not adequate. The study is important to the Ministry of Livestock Development and other stakeholders in the livestock industry as it will provide information vital for the adoption of appropriate strategies to manage livestock during drought. The study recommended that approaches and intervention measures taken by the government be communicated effectively so as to benefit the community as well to save the county and country. Further the study recommended that government should commit itself in distribution of drugs so as to effectively mitigate drought