Food insecurity in pastoral areas

Kenya’s pastoral areas are still faced with food insecurity accentuated by two successive poor seasons, USAID’s Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) reported. It said the “dismal” short rains were likely to erode grazing resources. FEWS added that several areas were now highly susceptible to livestock raiding. In the marginal agricultural areas, heightened food insecurity had been caused by increasing frequency of crop failures. FEWS said the coping strategies in these areas were overstretched, whereas in the agro-pastoral areas there had been a decline in the grazing indicators such as water and pasture following poor long rains earlier this year. The Kenyan government and various international NGOs have already put in place interventions in the food, water, livestock and health sectors. However, it was difficult to establish the extent to which these interventions had re-addressed the current needs, FEWS said.