Agriculture is the mainstay of the Kenyan economy, contributing to approximately 26 percent of the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Pastoralist and agricultural activities are dependent on rain for sustainability.
Erratic rainfall has led to significant reduction in crop and livestock production including Isiolo, Marsabit and Meru counties. In addition, limited access to basic services, insecurity and poverty rates have increased. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Kenya, together with the County Governments of Isiolo, Marsabit and Meru counties, conducted a study, which aimed at understanding household resilience capacity in the three counties.
According to the study, productive assets (including inputs for crop and livestock production), income diversification, distance to basic services influence households’ resilience. Households with mixed farming livelihoods are more resilient than pastoral.
Findings also revealed that drought, insecurity due to conflicts on natural resource use, crop and livestock pests and diseases were the most relevant shocks. For these reasons, policy makers should aim at enhancing agricultural productivity for every type of livelihoods. Moreover, increasing productive assets and improving access to basic services such as health services and markets are important for the pastoral livelihood.
FAO came up with a number of ways in which policy makers can strengthen resilience which includes the following:
- Investing in livestock and crop production by promoting value chain production, access to markets, efficient technologies to increase agriculture production.
- Investing in implementation of sustainable surveillance mechanisms for disease and pest control mechanisms including supporting animal health interventions.
- Enhance livelihood diversification by increasing income-generating activities for both crop and livestock production.
- Reducing distance to basic services such as health services, schools and markets through improving infrastructure.
- Enhancing environmental sustainability through improving natural resource management. In addition, the adoption of people-centred approaches (e.g. peace talks) on equitable access to resources is key.
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