Women herding camels in Kenya (photo on Flickr by Curt Carnemark/World Bank Photo Collection).
Polly Ericksen, a senior scientist with the People, Livestock and Environment Theme at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), announced to the ILRI community last Friday new funding from the European Union that will finance a three-year food security project that ILRI will conduct in Kenya’s drylands with the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and the Kenya Livestock Marketing Council.
SNV made the announcement on its website earlier this week, saying that these partners ‘have been awarded EU funding of €1.8 million under the Kenya Rural Development Program. The three-year project focuses on securing long-term food security through boosting agricultural productivity, enabling better responses to drought and improving livelihoods in arid and semi-arid lands.
‘Aiming to improve pastoral livelihoods through sustainable market systems, the project will promote pastoral livelihoods diversification . . . .
‘The project will enable improved access and availability of fodder for 25,000 livestock keepers households and empower 1,000 female-led households through a more profitable camel milk trade. In addition, 25 vibrant livestock markets in arid areas will benefit from improved management including information flow. . . .
‘SNV has overall responsible for the project and will specifically take the lead for commercialisation of fodder production, commercialisation of camel milk, of strengthening livestock markets. ILRI is in charge of the development and dissemination of knowledge on livestock markets and climate change resilience. The Kenya Livestock Marketing Council will support policy dialogue and livestock markets on the ground.’