By Bisola Adeyemo
United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Deputy Director General (DG) Beth Bechdol called for international interventions to mitigate the situation of drought that ravages pastoralists in northern Kenya.
Ms Bechdol expressed concern during a tour of Moyale Sub-county in Marsabit County where lots of carcasses and abandoned animals are left to die by the roadside.
Kenya news agency reported that Bechdol described the challenges faced by the pastoralist communities as unacceptable.
Ms Bechdol called for devising of new ways to address the situation as opposed to just availing resources as a matter of urgency.
She said that to effectively address the climate change driven challenges, it required renewed methodologies and a collaborative approach to the problem by all actors.
“Deliberate coordination of efforts to address weaknesses to climate change should be improved,” she said.
In his remarks, a similarly stunned Mr. Jackson said drought in the Northern part of Kenya has affected nutrition sources of milk production and future yields by decreasing milk production in dairy cattle and lower quality in beef, making farmers lose livestock which is their main source of livelihood.
He noted that the situation of drought in the country has no improvement despite the government, county, and national effort.
Mr. Jackson added that interventions by UN-affiliated bodies like FAO, World Food Programme (WFP), and UNICEF as well as other organizations had managed to fund half of the appeals made by the government hence the urgent need to revise the assistance upwards.
“Drought is running faster than we can, with three failed rainy seasons and animals are dying,” he pointed out adding; “We need to bring our acts together and urgently, otherwise lives are going to be lost,” he said.
FAO is currently providing 24 vulnerable households in Adeso area of Moyale with enriched animal feeds with each beneficiary receiving 150 kilograms of pellets to sustain animals left behind at the manyattas.
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