A meeting of interested stakeholders convened to discuss the LAPSSET corridor: preliminary analysis of risks and opportunities noted that “ …ninety percent of the LAPSSET corridor goes through arid and semi-arid lands, which are important areas for livestock production, tourism, biodiversity conservation, and cultural heritage. However, the feasibility study doesn’t give the full impact of the LAPSSET corridor on livestock and wildlife mobility or on water and pasture competition despite the fact that these issues already trigger deadly clashes between various communities….”

Due to a focus on a single component of Vision 2030, the LAPSSET corridor is currently undermining other objectives of Vision 2030. For example, it lays emphasize in promoting tourism in Kenya therefore it requires the improvement of tourism infrastructure and demands the securing of migratory corridors., The LAPSSET corridor traverses wildlife corridors which Vision 2030 is striving to achieve. It should attempt to balance the infrastructural objectives and tourism growth while minimizing impact on biodiversity. Such a multi-faceted approach to increasing Kenya’s economic growth ideally starts with an informed debate on the economic, social and environmental risks and opportunities related to the LAPSSET.

The LAPSSET corridor is one of the flagship projects of Kenya’s Vision 2030 whose objectives are “to improve access and connectivity between Kenya, Southern Sudan and Ethiopia as well as to stimulate economic activity in the Northern and Eastern parts of Kenya”.

The new Constitution of Kenya provides the legal framework for ensuring informed and participatory decision-making around development infrastructure like the LAPSSET corridor. In addition, Kenya has the data and expertise to inform discussions about the LAPSSET with its regular economic survey conducted by Kenya Bureau of Statistics or the thirty (30) years of information on region gathered by the Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing (DRSRS).

So far, however, the lack of meaningful stakeholder engagement has already resulted in court actions and the feasibility study hasn’t demonstrated an understanding of the context in which the LAPSSET is taking place.

The corridor presents a unique opportunity for the Northern and Eastern parts of Kenya to lay the ground for sustainable development. It will rectify a lack of accessibility to local, regional and international markets and will bring much needed investment in these regions. To be successful in the long-term, however, a project of such magnitude requires relevant information to be made available and debated by the various stakeholders.

The meeting was attended by stakeholder organisations involved in promoting rangeland livelihoods and conservation, among others the Kenya Rangeland Coalition, the International Livestock Research Institute and the East African Wildlife Society. These organisations are looking forward to collaborating with others and the project developers to realize the potential of the LAPSSET corridor.

Ninety six dairy farmers (96) among them 44 females have been trained on “Feeding strategies to improve dairy production in Samastipur District of Bihar”. The one-day training programme was organised by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and partners of Bihar, India.

The main purpose of the training held March 30, 2012 was to create awareness among milk producing communities about the importance of a balanced ration feeding to dairy cattle. The farmers were introduced to the nutritive quality of locally available feeds and fodders and the proper utilization to improve the production of dairy cattle.

Most of the dairy farmers of this region have been utilizing one or two home-made feed ingredients as concentrate to feed dairy cattle along with wheat bhusa/chaffed paddy straw and green fodder to some extent. Only farmers with a strong financial background are using commercial marketed concentrate mixture.

Dr. S. P. Sahu, Consultant of ILRI discussed the protein, energy, minerals, salt and vitamins requirements of dairy cows so as achieve an adequate amount for efficient milk production and better reproductive efficiency. He stressed that high quality forage complemented with balanced concentrate mixtures made of locally available feed ingredients helps improve the quality of milk.

Many dairy farmers who took part in previous feeding trials shared their experiences and benefits with the participants. A demonstration session following the training helped the dairy farmers to learn how to prepare the balanced concentrate mixture manually using locally available feed ingredients at cheapest cost without compromising the nutritive quality of concentrate mixtures.

The training was oganised under the Cereal System Initiative South Asia (CSISA) project which seeks to decrease hunger and malnutrition and to increase food and income security of resource-poor farm families in South Asia through the accelerated development and inclusive deployment of new varieties, sustainable management technologies, and policies.

The projects’ key objectives are the widespread delivery and adaptation of production and post-harvest technologies to increase cereal production and raise incomes; crop and resource management practices for sustainable future cereal-based systems and introduction of high-yielding, abiotic stress-tolerant, and disease- and insect-resistant rice and wheat varieties and hybrids for current and future cereal and mixed crop-livestock systems.

Other aims include introduction of high-yielding, heat-tolerant and disease-resistant maize inbred lines and hybrids for current and future cereal and mixed crop-livestock systems, technology targeting and improved policies for inclusive agricultural growth and the creation of a new generation of scientists and professional agronomists for cereal systems research and management.

Partners in the project are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development and the International Rice Research Institute.

The two day consultative meeting which starts in Entebbe today brings together people of varying backgrounds ranging from policy makers to researchers and communicators who interface with policy makers and recipients of policy.

“As part of our continuous growth, ASARECA is considering how to be more effective at influencing policy implementation at the national and regional levels…. This is based on the track record to date and projected increase in number of technologies and innovations that are already available and also under development, which will only be useful to end users if they adopt them”, said Michael Waithaka, ASARECA’S Manager, Policy Analysis and Advocacy Programme (PAAP).

He said recent reviews of ASARECA’s work had recommended more policy engagement and that the present effort was aimed at delivering a strategic note on how ASARECA will operationalize its advocacy strategy to get more engaged with implementation of policy agreements by member countries.
The PAAP project is expected to deliver policy options and advocacy strategies for enhancing the performance of the agricultural sector, strengthen capacity for carrying out policy research and enhance the availability of policy information on agricultural sector performance.

These results require the programme to work towards ensuring such outputs actually result in policy reform. To this end, PAAP has several projects organised around its four thematic areas which are: Rationalisation and harmonisation of policies, laws and regulations in key agricultural commodity and input sectors in the Eastern and Central Africa region; Trends analysis; Policy issues for natural resource management and Options and opportunities for small-scale agricultural growth.

Some of the questions that participants will discuss include how can ASARECA communicate to high level policy makers to ensure the message is understood and implemented? what can be done differently in order to get that level of attention so that the policy options can be adopted and implemented by countries?

The technical consortium brings together all CGIAR centres plus other research and non-governmental organization partners. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Investment Centre provides support on developing investment plans.  They will over a one and a half year period draw up a program of work that will support technical and investment support to IGAD and the national governments in the greater horn of Africa.

‘The objective of the interventions at both regional and national levels is to sustainably improve livelihoods and enhance resilience to external shocks within the pastoral communities in the drylands and stimulate economic transformation’, said Polly Ericksen ILRI’s representative in the discussions.

Dedicated teams will be established in each country and for the IGAD secretariat to ensure continuity and consistency in the investment design process. These teams will contribute to the preparation, pre-appraisal and appraisal processes to ensure technical quality of proposed investment programmes. The technical consortium will promote collective and harmonized approaches to the different country and regional investment programmes.

The research and technical centres will contribute to action-oriented research analyses and implementation plans for development interventions while the FAO Investment Centre will provide assistance in investment programming work. The work will also support the development of the IGAD Regional the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which is itself a program of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

The Horn of Africa is known for its harsh and often prolonged droughts that threaten the lives of millions including children, women and the livestock on which the people are dependent for their livelihoods. ILRI through the People, livestock and environment theme has invested heavily in drylands research especially through the team Reducing vulnerability of livestock-based livelihoods, ecosystem goods & services in pastoral and agropastoral Systems. 

Shem Kifugo; ILRI's Geographic information systems analyst, facilitated water users workshop

As the world celebrates World Water Day today, soil erosion, siltation and planting of eucalyptus trees near rivers remain some of the pressing issues affecting water users in Northern Kenya.

At a workshop of Water Resource Users Associations (WRUA’s) of the Ewaso N’giro catchment area, held in March 2012, water users outlined these as some of the critical issues affecting them. The main aim of the workshop was to bring together all the officials of WRUA’s in the area to discuss water management and sharing because all the WRUA’s are inter-related geographically. The workshop was organised by the Centre for Training and Integrated Research in ASAL Development (CETRAD), one of ILRI’s partners in the Arid and Semi arid (ASALs) districts.

Other issues that threaten water users are practicing agriculture and fish farming in the common water intake areas of Ewaso N’giro catchment area in northern Kenya. This is compounded by political interference such as people invading natural swamps for purposes of farming with the help of local administrators. As is often the case in such situations, those lower downstream experience the greatest effects of the activities taking place upstream.

The Ewaso N’giro catchment, the largest in Kenya, covers two thirds of the country and is subdivided into 5 sub-catchment areas namely Upper Ewaso, Middle Ewaso, North Ewaso Laggas, Engare Narok Meighis and Ewaso Daua. It consists of 61 WRUA’s.

During the workshop ILRI’s Shem Kifugo, a GIS analyst, distributed the report and maps of the project entitled: Mapping and Valuing Ecosystem Services in the Ewaso Ng’iro Watershed. The project compiled and mapped existing data regarding key inter-related ASAL ecosystem services (water, biomass, livestock, wildlife, irrigated crops). The economic value of these services was then estimated based on their quantity and demand and finally the impact of climate change predictions on crop conditions and surface water hydrology was assessed.

This project was undertaken in realisation of the fact that the Ministry of Development of Nothern Kenya and other Arid Lands (MDNKOAL) faces a big challenge in managing the use of land and water in the ASALs. Both are the major limiting factors in in improving standards of living in the ASALs.

The report, Mapping and Valuing Ecosystem Services in the Ewaso Ng’iro Watershed is authored by Ericksen, P.J.; Said,M.Y.; De Leeuw,J.; Silvestri, S.; Zaibet, L.; Kifugo,S.C.; Sijmons,K.; Kinoti,J.; Ng’ang’a, L.; F. Lansberg, F.; Stickler, M.  Partners in the project were  World Resources Institute, CETRAD and Danida.  Read the report here

As part of an inter-regional study ‘optimizing benefits from crop residues in smallholder crop-livestock systems in Africa and South Asia’ sponsored by the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme, the International Livestock Research Institute recently published a project report from the Ethiopia site.

Entitled ‘Optimizing livelihood and environmental benefits from crop residues in smallholder crop–livestock systems in western Oromia’, it reports from a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) study to assess overall trends and prospects for crop–livestock production, characterize crop residue transactions, and identify major determinants of crop residue use.

The authors conclude that almost all farmers in the study areas follow crop–livestock mixed farming. Results indicate that crop residues are becoming an increasingly important production component and play an important role mainly as feed, fuel, sources of income and for soil nutrient management. However, the current trend towards increased feeding of crop residues to livestock has long term implications for soil fertility and hence local livelihoods.

Download the paper

Peter was until his appointment with ILRI, responsible for the national dairy benchmarking service in Britain. He has had a long career in international agriculture since conducting his Ph.D research at the Universities of Nottingham and in the Philippines at Los Banos.

He has been involved in livestock production systems research, particularly in the areas of crop livestock interactions, feed evaluation and the development of novel approaches to information delivery.

‘ We are working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and national partners to develop a project that will contribute to improved food security in Zimbabwe. The project aims to promote more efficient crop-livestock integration’, he said in an interview.

The widely-travelled father of three looks forward to relocating to Zimbabwe after living for 20 years in North Wales, United Kingdom. His wife Clare and their teen-age children daughter Shona and son Seumas (pronounced Shamaus) will join him in Zimbabwe before settling in to a new school term in August. Their eldest daughter Hanna is studying for her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at Manchester University, UK.

Peter enjoys mountaineering, cycling and outdoor pursuits in general while Clare loves horses. ‘I wonder whether she will bring some down to Harare or she will buy one when we get there’, he says rather pensively.

Zida, returned to INERA after six months with PLE

Zida is also working with PLE to implement the Livelihood diversifying potential of livestock based carbon sequestration options in pastoral and agro pastoral systems in Africa project. He said at the farewell party that the opportunity given to him by ILRI along with other collaborators to undertake his post-doctoral research within the ILRI scientific community was immeasurable.

He came to ILRI knowing nothing about geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing, yet his research demanded dealing with these two methods endlessly. As he left ILRI, Zida was a GIS and remote sensing specialist, and that expertise will certainly benefit his future research work.

In spite of limited time, he was able to apply himself to his work and to forge good relationships with other ILRI members.

‘I believe these networks are a basis for future collaboration. I look forward to collaborating with the PLE team while implementing the livelihood diversification project’, he said.

He hopes that the collaboration between ILRI and the institution he is affiliated to (the Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research – INERA) and such exchange training programs will continue in the future.

Chancellor Angela Merkel when she launched the Conservancies project in 2011 at ILRI

Wildlife conservancies will today come under scrutiny in a workshop to discuss wildlife tourism as a response to climate change. The workshop is organized under the auspices of the Enabling livestock based economies in Kenya to adapt to climate change: A Review of payment for ecosystem services from wildlife tourism as a climate change adaptation option.

It will examine through an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) the viability of emerging conservancies within and around the protected parks in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs). Participants will also discuss policy options that either support or regress the development of conservancies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Pastoral societies are vulnerable to climate change because they inhabit drylands with repetitive drought and often have an insufficient financial buffer to absorb the shocks that droughts create. Conservancies are seen as one way to adapt to this climate variability as they provide diversification of the income portfolio into activities less prone to drought. This source of income may potentially increase the resilience of pastoral societies to climate change.

In addition, in some instances, conservancies also allow for the maintenance of open rangelands under a changing land tenure system that leads to fragmentation. Open rangelands are critical for mobility for pastoralists and their livestock especially during drought periods.

Recently, in many parts of Kenya community based conservancies have been developed, where land is managed by pastoralists to promote both wildlife and livestock to attract tourists and generate revenue.

The community based conservancy model is often highlighted for its potential to strengthen resilience of pastoral communities to climate change. However, it is unclear what the effect is on household income, and how the income generated affects the resilience to climate change. Resilience of household income to climate change also depends on equitable distribution of PES revenue, yet, there is little insight on the equity of access to benefits derived.

The study which has brought together researchers with expertise in development economics and ecosystem services respectively from ILRI, the University of Hohenheim (Stuttgart) and the Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Müncheberg will today be complemented by practitioners including government workers, non-governmental agency workers, private partners knowledgeable about conservancies and representatives of pastoral communities based around the conservancies.

This project is sponsored by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and was officially launched by Chancellor Angela Merkel, when she visited ILRI in 2011.

More ASALs policy briefs click here for ILRI/EU Decision Support tool and here for ILRI/ASARECA Biodiversity case studies

Environmental Permanent Secretary Mr Ali Mohammed

The Permanent Secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources, Mr Ali Mohammed (EBS) will on Tuesday 14th February 2012 give the opening address at a policy workshop hosted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

Mr Mohammed was recently elected as Vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The IPBES is a mechanism being set up to further strengthen the science-policy interface on biodiversity and ecosystem services. It is expected to enhance the existing processes that aim at ensuring that decisions are made on the basis of the best available scientific information on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The main aim of the workshop is to engage stakeholders from grassroots users through to national and international policymakers/practitioners, entrepreneurs, and scientists working on issues related to the Biodiversity, Ecosystem services, Social sustainability and Tipping points in African Dry lands (BEST) project. It is managed in collaboration with The African Technology Policy Studies Network, the Institute of Zoology, London, University College London, UCL, Anthropology (East African dry lands societies, livelihoods and NRM institutions) will host a one-day Policymaker, Practitioner and Community User Workshop. BEST is run by the People Livestock and Environment (PLE) theme in ILRI.

BEST targets to provide awareness into the poverty and environment impacts of different policies on tenure and natural resources management, as is incorporated at household decisions. The outcomes are intended to be used by national and international policymakers at all levels who have responsibility for planning and budgeting, climate change adaptation programmes, and donor-funded interventions. The stakeholders comprise of national and international interest groups (including responsible investors). The envisioned beneficiaries are the local users who are mostly the residents in the dry lands; BEST has the intentions to improve their livelihoods and environments and also make them more resilient and sustainable.

The workshop will be held at ILRI, Nairobi on 14 February 2012. BEST researchers will present project aims and approach, preliminary work completed to date, and plans for subsequent work, soliciting feedback on all elements of the project during the workshop.

The BEST research collaboration brings together international partners, social and natural scientists; specialists in ecology, economics and anthropology, in geographic information systems (GIS) and in modelling. Others are communications and research management experts, to help create an integrated approach to addressing central issues in African dry lands ecosystem services and poverty alleviation.

Project partners include TAWIRI, ASARECA, ESRC-STEPS and many others contributing data and insights, sharing and enhancing the networking potential in both consultation/feedback and dissemination of findings.