New rangeland system boosts northern Kenya

Over the years, the state of rangelands has been worsening, with serious implications on the health of animals that depend on them for fodder and millions of pastoralists who rely on livestock as their main economic mainstay.

Every year when the drought hits the northern frontier counties, women and children know that it is time to pack and move as they have to follow their husbands with their livestock in search of water and pasture.

The migration means that children will have to abandon schools and women leave whatever income-generating activities that they were engaging in, in order to move to a place where their animals will have food and overcome the effects of drought.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel with the introduction of participatory rangeland management (PRM) approach that helps in proper utilisation of the grazing fields by ensuring there is pasture throughout the year.

“Now we can do other business like selling vegetables, take care of our families and ensure our children are going to school without having to move with animals as the pasture and water is right here with us following the establishment of the PRM,” said Ms Mohamed.

PRM is a means for State institutions and change agents from governmental and nongovernmental organisations to support communities to manage their rangelands.

The rangelands which make up more than 80 percent of the Kenyan landmass, are faced with numerous challenges that affect realisation of optimal livestock production. These challenges include diminishing rangeland resources due to frequent and severe droughts, environmental degradation due to high incidents of overstocking and unplanned grazing.

Like traditional pastoralist governance systems, PRM involves planning and making decisions at different levels. For instance, the rangeland have been divided in such a way that some fields are reserved for dry season and there are those where animals can only be allowed to graze during wet season.

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) through Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) developed this PRM toolkit that promotes sustainable management of rangeland resources to help in curbing livestock deaths.

Some of the components of PRM include a set of joint plans and/or negotiated agreements with communities beyond the rangeland unit addressing how pastures and other rangeland resources will and will not be shared, and how the ecosystem and resources will be managed at a landscape scale.

“Before, the pastoralists never used to plan and they would feel the shocks once the drought hit,” said Adan Abdi the field coordinator for ILRI in the northern region.

Mr Abdi said participatory approach in managing the rangelands has come with great benefits that have increased the income of the pastoralists, enhanced nutrition as a result of increased milk yield and reduced animal deaths.

Adin Boru, chairman of the Dheda management committee in Isiolo County, said they have not lost any animal this season and that the prices for their stocks have gone up because of good body weight resulting from the availability of grass and water.

“By this time of the year in 2020 we had lost a lot of animals to drought and the once that we were left with we sold at a loss. The PRM has greatly helped us in preventing deaths by ensuring we have pasture and water throughout,” said Mr Boru.

Mr Boru said that a cow that would be sold for Sh50,000 had to go at Sh20,000 last year because they were emaciated. Currently, said the farmer, they are selling a calf at Sh25,000.

In Kenya, the livestock sub-sector plays a critical role, contributing 42 percent to the agricultural GDP and 12 percent to the national economy. Studies indicate that over 75 percent of cattle herds in Kenya are kept by pastoralists who supply the bulk of meat consumed in the country.

The vast majority of these rangelands are situated on communal rather than private land and are managed collectively by the people who live there. While pastoral and agro pastoral communities have had traditional institutions and practices for managing their resources, these traditional systems have been eroding in most communities.

Compounded by the effects of climate change, most rangelands have either been left bare or heavily infested with undesirable and invasive bush species.

To ensure smooth and effective implementation of the toolkit, AVCD trained 59 county government officials on participatory rangeland management across all the five counties in northern Kenya (Garrissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Turkana and Wajir) using the Training of Trainees (ToTs) approach.

So far, the trained ToTs have in turn imparted skills to 744 community members on PRM toolkit implementation at the community level in Isiolo, Wajir, Turkana and Marsabit Counties.

The PRM toolkit has revolutionised the way communities are supported to effectively and sustainably manage their rangelands to ensure constant supply of pasture throughout the year.

Several counties have been able to rehabilitate significant portions of previously degraded rangeland, leading to availability of more grazing resources throughout the year.

Over the last two years, the PRM toolkit has helped implementing partners rehabilitate close to 1.4 million hectares of rangelands in northern Kenya.

Using the toolkit, the Bute Ward Adaptation Committee in Wajir County rehabilitated an estimated 79,100 hectares, which is projected to sustain 79,100 tropical livestock unit (TLU) in a year.

In Isiolo, 218,100 hectares have been rehabilitated in Kinna Ward, which can support 109,050 TLU in a year. In Kargi and Golbo Wards of Marsabit County, rehabilitation of 752,800 hectares and 237,400 hectares that can sustain 376,400 and 118,700 heads of livestock respectively, has been achieved.

“The rehabilitation of degraded lands in these counties has been contributed by effective implementation of the PRM toolkit among other external factors,” said ILRI.

The PRM toolkit has been so successful in supporting the restoration and management of rangelands that AVCD in collaboration with various county governments are now institutionalising it. AVCD is working with the County Governments of Wajir and Marsabit in advancing legislation on rangeland management in the two counties.

In addition, the PRM toolkit has been adopted by other partners who are not members of USAID's Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth (PREG).

For instance, in Marsabit County, World Vision and the German Development Agency (GIZ) have embraced the use of the PRM toolkit to train Ward Level Planning Committees in sustainable rangeland management in other different wards across the county.

These two bodies are using the PRM tool kit to train 10 locational committees on rangeland management using the PRM toolkit.