With an increase in temperatures in Kenyan drylands in the past 50 years, a new report shows that it is bound to cause severe effects and more especially to livestock and food crops.
Kenya Markets Trust (KMT) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found out in their studies that the world is not keen on working towards achieving agriculture-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Kenyan study, commissioned by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) found out that in 21 out of the 47 counties in Kenya, there was an average decrease of 25.2 percent in cattle population between 1997 and 2016.
The Kenyan researchers also found out that Turkana County which has constantly been experiencing long dry periods and drought lost about 60 percent cattle population during this time.
“We observed that Turkana County has been the most affected in terms of rising temperatures whose possible effects are causing the extinction of livestock and crops,” said DR. Mohammed Yahya, the consulting scientist at Kenya Markets Trust.
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According to the KMT reports, Laikipia, West-Pokot, Narok, Baringo, Turkana and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties are among the counties in the country experiencing heat rise surpassing the standard 1.5 degrees.
West-Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet counties have recorded a rise in temperatures of 1.91 degrees in the past 50 years, while Turkana and Baringo’s temperatures increased to 1.8 degrees.
Laikipia rise in temperature was found to have increased by 1.59 degrees while that of Narok by 1.75 degrees within the same period.
KMT’s report was exactly like the FAO global report where FAO found out that if the whole world is not keen on achieving the SDGs, crops, and livestock would likely become extinct, thereby increasing the number of hungry people in the world.
“The world has 7,155 local breeds of livestock. Out of this, 1940 breeds are already said to be at risk of extinction. Examples include the Ethiopian Fogera breed of cattle and Bali’s Gembrong goats,” read the report by FAO.
According to FAO, more than 820 million people in different countries worldwide are hungry.
The United Nations (UN) also reports that due to these changes in temperatures, the percentage of hungry people in the world has been increasing over the last three years.
The total population of hungry people by 2018 had reached 10.8 percent up from 10.6 percent in 2015, which is a step backward as the numbers of hungry people now is similar to how it was in 2010.
The UN also notes that there is very little or no progress in conserving genetic resources, and this may lead to difficulties in reconstituting breeds of livestock in case of extinction.
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