With the latest famine in the Horn of Africa posing a threat to millions of people in the region, the CGIAR Consortium organized a news briefing on ‘Research options for mitigating drought-induced food crises’ that attracted agricultural research experts and stakeholders from across the Horn and further afield. The event, which was held on 1 September 2011 on the campus of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya, examined the underlying factors that allow such tragedies to occur and discussed possible evidence-based solutions and interventions that can alleviate the effects of likely extreme weather events in the future.

Lloyd Le Page, CEO of the CGIAR Consortium, was joined on the briefing panel by Namanga Ngongi, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA); Jeff Hill, Director of Policy at the Bureau of Food Security, United States Agency for International Development (USAID); David Miano Mwangi, Assistant Director of Animal Production, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI); and Mark Gordon, Co-chair of the UN Somalia Food Cluster, World Food Programme (WFP).

The five panelists addressed a variety of issues including the need for increased investment in agriculture and livestock, natural resource management strategies, support for pastoralists, access to water, grazing lands and markets, the linking of search results with the private sector, and drought tolerant crops.

Despite the almost 13 million people whose lives are at risk in the region, Le Page told the gathering that famines can be avoided. “Livestock management and farming conditions in the Horn are challenging,” he said. “But let’s be clear: they are not fated to produce famines … We can prevent it from happening again if we are willing to embrace the research and policies that give farmers in the region the tools that they need to be resilient and in the face of increasing uncertainty.”

Chronic under-investment

Jeff Hill examined the root cause of the famine. “While drought and conflict are certainly driving the famine in Somalia, drought alone doesn’t explain the extreme levels of food insecurity seen elsewhere in the Horn’s arid and semi-arid lands of the ASARs [arid and semi-arid regions],” he said. “It is not drought, but vulnerability to drought that is eroding food security in these areas. And this vulnerability is the result of chronic under-investment.”

Hill also touched on the need for long-term development plans for the arid and semi-arid lands and how research science and technology should be at the heart of such initiatives. “In the near term, we need to better harness the knowledge and technologies that do exist and improve the access to and use of these innovations,” he said. “Concurrently, a sustained commitment is needed to the long-term science and research agenda to help forecast and solve the constraints and barriers to increased productivity and income-generation in the ASARs.”

Livelihood recovery and livelihood strengthening activities

Mark Gordon talked about reducing vulnerable households and livelihoods in the region through livelihood recovery and livelihood strengthening activities that “incorporate a seasonal perspective that allows for adaption of a changing environment, provides vulnerable households with strategies that reinforce their current livelihoods, and allowing them to mitigate or reduce the impact of stresses or shocks.”

He also highlighted the need for overarching strategies that encompass not only the socio political but also the needs of the local communities in addressing their priorities. For example, WFP will look at livelihood protection, asset restoration and the development of new community-based assets that can develop and strengthen livelihood resilience. Tangible examples include sustainable land management programs in Ethiopia, the construction of soil bunds in Kenya and Djibouti designed to hold rainwater, and the construction of underground reservoirs for human consumption and community gardens

Drought tolerant crops

David Mwangi informed the meeting of his organization’s work investigating crops that fit into the current agro ecology in the Horn. KARI is encouraging farmers to diversify by planting drought-tolerant crops like sorghums and millets. The organization is also linking its research results with the private sector. In the last three years, KARI has collaborated with a major brewing company that now buys sorghum suitable for brewing from small-scale farmers.

The adoption of drought tolerant crops was also endorsed by Namanga Ngongi. “The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa is working to scale up known knowledge that has been tested and that works in terms of producing seeds, especially, in the case of the Horn of Africa, of drought tolerant crops and varieties,” he said. “We have to adapt our agriculture to the changing nature of our environment. Resistant as we are, we have to change our food habits.”

Stakeholder involvement

Le Page highlighted the need for farmers and other stakeholders to be involved in research if they are to take ownership and achieve durable results. “We cannot just develop solutions and hand them down; they must be co-developed,” he said. “Indeed, we must guard against the tendency to be seduced by the simpler solution. For example, high yield drought-tolerant crop varieties and irrigation schemes get a lot of attention during droughts. They are important, but they are not the answer for all the areas, including large parts of Somalia where livestock serves as the mainstay for food security.

“The food crisis in the Horn reinforces the need for research programs and partnerships that can generate long-lasting improvements. Farmers need a diversity of approaches for achieving food security. Increasing productivity is critical… We need to provide solutions that respond to stressful growing conditions caused by climate change.”

In support of pastoralists

Mwangi also spoke out in support of herders in the region, who are often accused of degrading the land and water supplies by moving their livestock from one place to another. He explained that by moving herds out of an area, the land is given an opportunity to re-generate and replenish grazing pastures for the herds when return.

Hill called for governments to address the neglected interests of pastoralists.  He felt that governments should build a coalition for pastoralists for a long-term agenda.

Le Page also agreed on the importance of livestock in the current crisis. “Livestock provides more food security than growing crops in many arid and semi-arid areas,” he told the meeting.

Irrigation directed at pastoralists

KARI recently launched a model 100-hectare irrigation scheme on the edge of the Chalbi Desert that is assisting about 100 families in that area. Grass is one of the major crops that stem from this scheme. Mwangi told the meeting that grass is being grown instead of food crops because it can be used to feed home herds, which are usually tended by women and children while the men search for pastures with their best livestock. The survival of the home herds will, in turn, ensure the survival of family members in an area that is exhausted in terms of rain-fed pasture.

Honoring pledges

Le Page appealed to donors and governments to live up to earlier pledges. “Modest investments in agricultural research that allow the world’s most vulnerable people to take charge of their food security are far less expensive than constantly parachuting in with food aid and humanitarian assistance… Yet donors and governments continue to fall short of their promise to boost investments in the farm sector.”
Picture: Panelists: Lloyd Le Page, CEO CGIAR Consortium, Namanga Ngongi, President AGRA; Jeff Hill, Director of Policy, Bureau of Food Aid, USAID; David Miano Mwangi, Assistant Director Animal Production, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and Mark Gordon, Co-Chair, UN Somalia Food Cluster, World Food Programme at the CGIAR News Briefing on ‘Research Options for Mitigating Drought-induced Food Crises,’ 1 Sep 2011 (photo credit: ILRI/Samuel Mungai).