Kenyan herders turn to grazing app to cut drought risks

ARKAMANA: During times of drought, herder Buchu Boru has to walk tens of kilometres in search of pasture for his animals – with no guarantee he will find it.

“Somebody tells you by word of mouth that there is pasture but on arriving you don’t (find) any,” said the 60-year-old, who has had to walk from his home all the way across the Ethiopian border to find grass for some years.

But next time the rains fail – an increasingly common problem in northern Kenya – he hopes a new mobile phone app will help him move his livestock to fodder without too much cost or waste of time.

The Afriscout app, which uses satellite images to identify where there is grass and surface water, “is better than what we are used to”, he said.

As climate change brings longer droughts and more unpredictable rainfall, herders often need to trav- el further and to less-well-known areas to find grass and water for their animals.

Boru and his neighbours normally rely on word-of-mouth to determine where to go, or they phone others, or pay a scout to travel on a pasture-seeking mission.

But the hunt is time consuming, and sometimes goes wrong.

Boru vividly remembers, during a 2016 drought, travelling five days with his cattle, sheep and goats to Ambalo, 80km away, where he heard there was pasture. But “on arrival at Ambalo, it was dry”.

“I lost 13 cattle, some on the way and others in Ambalo,” Boru said.

With the app, “we will not be gambling with our livestock”, he added. “We will be very sure where the pasture and water is and we will just head there.”

Afriscout, developed by Project Concern International (PCI), a California- based development organisation, launched in Boru’s area in February.

As well as providing detailed grazing maps showing water and grass conditions, herders can contribute information about livestock diseases, predators and conflicts.

The app has about 3,000 users in Kenya, though PCI hopes to increase that to 4,000 once it finishes mapping Samburu county, home to the Samburu herding community. — Reuters