New skills and tools to help pastoralists cope with drought

Farm Africa has been working with pastoralist communities in the drought prone areas of Afar and SNNP regions since 1999. Pastoralists depend primarily on their livestock for milk to drink and meat to eat, and also use their cattle as a form of currency to pay in kind for other products like grain and services.

As one phase of Farm Africa’s work came to a close in South Omo our local experts sat down with local pastoralist community members to talk about their ongoing needs. The community members wanted to continue to learn ways for helping local people to deal with the impact of drought.

This is important because drought has placed enormous demands on pastoralists, leading to migration of people, devaluation of cattle, increased disease outbreaks and increased conflict over scarce resources.

Farm Africa is working with pastoralist Community Development Committees and the Kebele Early Warning and Drought Cycle Management Sub-committees to plan and manage their own Disaster Risk Reduction strategies and natural resources management plans.

We are also working with local people to ensure that communities become less dependant on livestock alone and that they develop alternative ways to build their livelihoods and improve their resilience to shocks.  These initiatives include setting up savings and lending schemes to make microfinance available; pond construction to capture water for humans and livestock; building a grain mill for women; providing essential tools such as ploughs and seeds; establishing small scale drip irrigation on small plots of land; and the establishment of a grain mill for women. Women from some of the poorest households in the project area have also received training in poultry husbandry.

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