Interventions for Mitigating Drought-Related Livestock Mortality in Africa’s Pastoral Areas: A Review of Their Relevance and Effectiveness with Special Reference to Kenya

Interventions for Mitigating Drought-Related Livestock Mortality in Africa’s Pastoral Areas: A Review of Their Relevance and Effectiveness with Special Reference to Kenya

One of the key challenges facing pastoral livestock production in Africa’s drylands is the recurring drought which triggers shortage of grazing resources and massive losses of livestock. Though the pastoralists have traditional drought coping mechanisms, the changing land use, insecure land-tenure arrangements, and the declining natural resource base, have undermined the effectiveness of the mechanisms and worsen the drought impacts. Several interventions have hence been implemented over the years to mitigate the increasing drought impacts and to create more resilient pastoralist societies. Focusing on Kenyan pastoral areas, this study reviewed the relevance and effectiveness of various interventions in reducing the drought-related livestock mortalities. The results show that drought interventions such as destocking programs, supplementary feeding, provision of early warning information, water development, and veterinary services were commonly implemented, but often at the late stage of drought cycles with little emphasis on sustainability.