Pastoral Development - page 1 of 2

© Panos/Chris Sattlberger

Keeping up with tradition

FARM-Africa aims to improve the lives of pastoralists - people who live in the arid regions of Africa and rely on livestock for survival. Pastoralists are mostly nomadic. Due to seasonal and patchy rainfall, they move in search of grazing-land and water.

Pastoral Problems
Pastoralists have survived like this for many years, but now their nomadic way of life is under threat. Their movements are becoming restricted, reducing their access to land and water. The population pressure among farmers is forcing them to cultivate land traditionally used by pastoralists for grazing. In addition, politicians from agricultural backgrounds often think the nomadic way of life is primitive. Governments want pastoralists to settle so healthcare and education are easier to deliver.

Rainfall in arid parts of Africa has always followed long-term cycles of good years followed by bad, causing a boom and bust pattern of life. In good years, livestock numbers increase and people thrive. In bad years, livestock and people die. There is evidence that droughts are becoming more frequent, which is taking its toll on the pastoralists' ability to recover. When combined with increasing numbers of people and a reduced amount of grazing land available, they are struggling to survive today. However, the harsh environment where many pastoralists live means their existing way of life is still the most viable.

On the move with FARM-Africa
Since 1985, FARM-Africa's aim has been to help pastoralists adapt and improve their traditional way of life. FARM-Africa works with them, not from an established base, but through Mobile Outreach Camps that move with them. Rather than forcing pastoralists to come into urban centres for services such as veterinary and medical care, we travel with the groups in movable camps.This enables us to work with them to find solutions to the real problems they face.

"Because we made the effort to go to the people, they showed tremendous interest in us and cooperated with us fully."

Chris Field,
former project team leader

So how does FARM-Africa help?

• We help pastoralists sell their livestock at the best price, by setting up trading groups and providing access to markets
• We train animal health workers to treat livestock
• We enable them to establish profitable businesses, such as butchers' shops
• We organise clearance of the invasive plant Prosopis
• We enable them to diversify into new enterprises such as eco-tourism
• We help them establish irrigated small-scale farms, so they can survive during drought or when grazing land is scarce

The Mobile Outreach Camp, part of our flagship Pastoral Development project in Kenya, was so successful that the Ethiopian Government has now adopted it through theirWorld Bank/IFAD-funded Pastoral Capacity Building Project.

FARM-Africa has been awarded the contract to train Ethiopian Government staff in working with pastoralists and we have expanded the project into Tanzania. We also produced a very successful publication series focusing on animal health, mobile outreach approaches, micro-enterprise development, natural resource management and camel husbandry. Further details can be found at www.farmafrica.org.uk/resources.cfm.

	Changing with the times: Colemiti Pasiato
	Olemiti is one of the Maasai people - a pastoralist who lives in Tanzania. He has always kept local goats and cattle, but his livestock produced little milk.After his neighbour, John, received the loan of a Toggenburg buck from FARM-Africa to crossbreed with, Olemiti saw how much more milk the new goats could produce. He asked if he could crossbreed his goats with John's purebred Toggenburg. To ensure Olemiti benefited as much as possible from this opportunity, FARM-Africa taught him new ways to keep his livestock healthy.We also helped him grow fodder so he would always have food for his animals, even during drought. The milk from the goats provides his children with the nutrients they need to grow healthy and strong. With the income Olemiti receives from the extra milk, he can better feed his family and pay for his children's schoolbooks.		"Now the old and young in my village have better health because they drink the goats' milk." Olemiti,Tanzania

Next section - The impact of FARM-Africa's projects