Pastoralism: Development Interventions, Survival Adaptations and Food Security - A Review

For the last 40 years or so, international development agencies have spent large sums of money to improve what they thought was development on pastoralist in many parts of the world including Kenya. In spite of such efforts, the pastoralist is getting poorer and the productivity arising from exploitation of his resources is ever dwindling. Honestly, something must be grossly wrong somewhere. Consequently, most development agencies are coming to grips with reality by recognizing that the pastoralist is the expert of his own niche from whom they should learn. The current trend is therefore, to develop pastoralist rather than “to develop the pastoralist”. It is rapidly being recognized that over the centuries indigenous pastorals communities have evolved sophisticated adaptations to specifically cope with the situations of scanty resources available in their environment which is largely harsh and unyielding. Pastroralism is gaining acclaim as an efficient system of utilizing and semi-arid land to enhance food security. The Kenya Veterinarian Vol. 25 2002: pp. 28-3