GULU Uganda (PAMACC News) - Over one thousand Karamojong pastoralists facing severe starvation in Northern Uganda have been accused of destroying crops belonging to local farmers within parts of the region, as they move around with their livestock in search of water and greener pastures.According to Paul Lopuk, the community head of pastoralists in Karamoja,the herders have been sleeping in the jungles, many kilometers away from their homes in Kotido and Moroto districts in order to graze their livestock."About 1,000 of them have established makeshift settlements in Alebtong and Otuke districts in neighbouring Lango sub region, west of their home villages," said Lopuk.They are majorly grazing on stocks of standing dry grass left by waves of bush fire which sweep the region. They are grazing in Olilim and Omoro sub counties in Alebtong district. Security and local leaders have restricted them to graze in a small piece of land.Lopuk says the animals are unable to feed enough due to lack of adequate green grass. “We are encountering few nutritive young green grass upstream. The animals don’t prefer the grasses in the valleys which is why they stray into people’s gardens” he told PAMAAC News.When the livestock could no longer derive adequate water from the mud left in valley dams constructed by government of Uganda, the pastoralists started to slowly drift away west of their villages, kilometer by kilometer until the distance became too much for them to return home and eat or fetch food.Patrick Okello, a resident of Olilim says his three acres of Cassava have been destroyed by the pastoralists. He says besides interfering with the food security situation of the host communities, the pastoralists threaten women around water sources.Wafula Ogumbo John, the resident district commissioner of Otuke district where some of the pastoralists have arrived says pastoralists without food have resorted to stealing food from host communities. In Ogwette Sub County for example, several acres of cassava have been ransacked by the pastoralists. In Ogwette, communities preserve cassava seeds by leaving them in the gardens.Wafula says “in gardens run down by the pastoralists and their livestock, the cassava planting materials broken down have begun drying up. If not arrested, the communities will not have cassava planting materials when the rains return”. Cassava is a food security crop in this area.According to Wafula, sick pastoralists are exerting extra pressure on public resources such as water, health care, production and sanitation situation. The sick ones have begun turning up at health centers after spending days without proper food and shelter.“Medicines supplied to health center hosting the pastoralists are running out of supplies. We are working with Police to conduct surveillance and prevent the pastoralists engaging in criminal activities where they are seeking water and healthcare services among others” Wafula explained adding that 30 animals were stolen by the pastoralists from their host communities in Ogwette Sub County. They are yet to be recovered and handed back to their owners.Like in Alebtong district, some of the pastoralists have resorted to cheaply…

PAMACC, Abuja-NIGERIA After five decades of the creation of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), the basin is still characterised by increasing population and severe drought.Scholars believe that as the population growth rate increases from 40 million in 2010, to a projection of 62 million in 2030, the consequences of famine, water distribution problems, human and animal disease will also rise.They said these changes that have occurred could have been because of global climate change, fueled by accelerated population growth.They also averred that these factors were responsible for the accumulation of social tensions which could have led to the outbreak of the violent insurgency that the region is faced with lately.In 1992, a decision was taken to develop a master plan for the Lake Chad basin to include the establishment of an environmentally sound management of the natural resources of the Lake Chad conventional basin.The feasibility study for the water transfer from the Congo basin to the Lake Chad was the second priority project selected for implementation by the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC). A proposal to transfer water from Congo to the Lake Chad was submitted to the LCBC in 1984 at the height of the most severe drought affecting the Lake Chad basin.This proposal was approved and shared by the then President Mobuto Sese Seko of Congo, but was considered to be too big, hence a similar proposal of taking water from the Ubangi river to the Lake Chad was adopted by the Member-states of the LCBC.Raising an estimated 6 million USD for the pre-feasibility study of the Ubangu-Lake Chad Inter- Basin Water Transfer became a problem until the government of Nigeria under President Olusegun Obasanjo provided support and launched a diplomatic campaign to get the no-objection of the two Congos.The conduct of the feasibility study was awarded to a Canadian firm, CIMA International, with work commencing on the 13th of October 2009 for a period of 28 months.The study was concluded in 2011 with the conclusion that the Ubangi-Lake Chad Inter-Basin Water Transfer project is technically feasible and economically viable from the Congo basin via the State Ubangi river to Lake Chad through an inter-basin transfer, a pumping transfer via the Palambo dam and a gravity transfer through a deviation of the Koto River.This will increase the water level of the Lake by at least one meter in both the south and the north basins and increase the size of the Lake by about 5,000km square over a period of four to five years.The combined cost estimate of the projects for the transfer was put at USD 14.5 billion.The result of the study was endorsed by the 14th Summit of the Head of States and Government of the LCBC on 30th April 2012.Delivering a speech at the ongoing International Conference on Lake Chad in Nigeria, the Executive Secretary of the LCBC, Engr. Sanusi Abdullahi, said there was no solution to the shrinking of the Lake Chad that does not involve recharging the Lake with water from outside…

ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - As climate change threatens agriculture, food security and water resource, the Ghana chapter of EBAFOSA will launch the National Day of Resilience on March 1 to take stock and showcase progress made in sustainably industrializing Ghana’s food systems.EBAFOSA – Ecosystem Based Adaptation for Food Security Assembly – is poised to serve as a platform to foster collaboration in combating food insecurity, climate change, ecosystems degradation and poverty in the country.Food systems serve as the engine and strategic thrust for accelerating the achievement of Ghana’s socioeconomic priorities, creating wealth opportunities for enhanced incomes and jobs.The resilience day will look at meeting Ghana’s climate resilience goals as captured in the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).“Ghana is on track to build green and sustainable Economy,” said Dr. John Boateng, President of EBAFOSA–Ghana. “Everybody else, governmental, non-governmental, youth groups and the private sector and corporate world are all doing their part. We need to have a big plan though as a nation that coordinates and synchronizes all efforts into an impactful action. There must be a strategy in place to monitor and evaluate progress we make and correct wrong decisions”.EBAFOSA is an all-inclusive pan-African policy framework which uses innovative approaches that decentralize the development and application of policy solutions in order to achieve participation of key stakeholders.The National Day of Resilience will bring together agriculture and food security practitioners and stakeholders from the government and public sectors, educational and research institutions, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, and civil society and faith-based organizations.Under the theme “Making Africa Work through EBAFOSA and Power of Innovative Volunteerism”, stakeholders will leverage on the Day to achieve the end goal of wealth creation and climate resilience building.According to Dr. Boateng, the young people are being targeted to take the lead in transformative solutions to drive the agro-industrialisation efforts of EBAFOSA Ghana and to accelerate Africa's progress.“The youth need to be engaged to lead in creating the income opportunities that they need. It is for this reason that in the practice of Innovative Volunteerism, youth, who are the majority, should likewise be intrinsically engaged, to lead actions. Their energy and innovativeness should be leveraged,” he said.Interest groups and individuals are expected to collaborate in developing and implementing policy solutions to upscale ecosystem-based adaptation-driven agriculture and its value chain improvements toward ensuring sustainable inclusive growth in Ghana.

KIGANJO, Kenya (PAMACC News) - On a private paddock in Kiganjo, along Thika-Nanyuki highway, Dr James Gakuo is busy de-worming a herd of 100 cattle he just purchased from Isiolo County. The animals are extremely emaciated, almost at the verge of death. In another shed just a few meters away, a herd of 150 well built cattle is feeding on a special floor-like organic ration locally prepared using grain by-products and oil crops such as barley, sunflower and cotton seed-cake that Gakuo grinds and blends at his feed production factory in Kiganjo. “These animals at one point were skinny like the others. I brought them from Northern Kenya while they were emaciated and fed them and look at them now, they are ready for the market,” says Gakuo, a veterinary expert. He is in the business of adding value to such emaciated animals, before releasing them to the market.And now, after a long research, a new study by scientists drowns from different parts of the world recommends that county governments in semi arid lands in Kenya should customize followGakuo’s example as one way of developing climate-resilient economies through vertical and horizontal transformation in the beef value chain.According to Dr Stephen Moiko, the lead researcher for a study on ‘Livestock Production and Value Chains: Adaptation under Climate & Land Tenure Changes,’ One of the ways of building resilience is by investing in projects that improve the quality of beef along the value chain.“This can be done by fattening the animals at producer level, and also by having improved marketing at processor level, and as well by researching and developing of alternative feed sources and breeds,” said Moiko.Gakuo’s enterprise also shows that there are adaptation options for business and private sector investment opportunities in responding to climate change.The PRISE study, jointly funded by the Canada based International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the UK based Department for International development (DFID) and implemented in Kenya by the Kenya Markets Trust (KMT) also calls for diversification of pastoralist livelihoods through tourism, as a sector that complements and supports the livestock sector.According to Moiko, livestock traders and businessmen respondents during the research pointed out that good quality meat was not easy to find in the market, given the prevailing tough climatic conditions. As a result, end consumers are now opting for white meat instead. However, Gakuo has proven that apart from taking the animals to ranches for fattening, it is possible to improve the quality of the meat using short-term intensive fattening system for better profits.“If we had fattening programs in all the pastoralist counties, then it would be easier for individuals to pay some fee for fattening animals whenever drought strikes. Once an animal is fit enough, it will automatically fetch better prices from meat processors who are always out to get good quality products for the end consumer,” said Dr Gakuo.The study, which is part of the Pathways to Resilience in Semi-arid Economies (PRISE) further calls for hHolistic planning of pasture management in…