Feature: Crop farming hands former Kenyan pastoralists relief from climate-related conflicts-Xinhua

Feature: Crop farming hands former Kenyan pastoralists relief from climate-related conflicts

Source: Xinhua| 2022-12-10 01:18:45|Editor: huaxia

NAIROBI, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Lush green maize crops on the farm in Lokichar, Turkana County in northern Kenya, catches one's eye as they sway in sync with dry winds blowing from hills a distance away.

The crops sitting on about 100 acres are a spectacle, as they are surrounded by scorched desert trees and shrubs.

The bulk of the land in the area is parched and can barely support any vegetation due to the lack of rain in the arid region.

But the maize crops are thriving because they are grown under irrigation.

Behind the crops are former pastoralists who have been contracted by a Kenyan government agency to grow the crops for seeds.

"These maize crops sit on 120 acres. Apart from maize, we also grow green grams, tomatoes, and watermelons," Milton Loito, the chairman of the irrigation scheme known as Katilu, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Up to 3,500 farmers, who are former pastoralists, grow the crops at the scheme that sits on some 3,000 acres.

"We now depend on crop farming for our livelihood. This is better than pastoralism where we had to walk from one place to another looking for pasture," said Benjamin Awala, who grows groundnuts.

At 24, Awala is at a prime age, and were it not for the shift to crop farming, he would now be kilometers away herding cattle and camels in search of pasture.

With the rains having failed for the last four seasons in the area leading to the worst drought in four decades, according to Kenya's National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), Awala would be miles away.

That long trek in search of pasture has over the years been a recipe for conflicts between the Turkanas and neighbouring communities like the Pokot.

The communities have clashed over scarce pasture and water resources with deadly consequences.

Over the years, climate-induced conflicts have claimed hundreds of lives from both Turkanas and Pokots.

While some of the conflicts have been due to pasture and water, others have been raids by members of both communities to restock their animals that have died due to drought.

In one search of an incident in September, according to the police, at least 11 people were killed by cattle rustlers during an ambush at a village in Turkana.

They included police officers and locals who were pursuing stolen livestock.

"I am happy growing groundnuts. With groundnuts, we are not targets of raids by cattle rustlers. Besides that, we don't conflict with our neighbours due to pasture and water resources," Deborah Akiru said.

She farms the crop under irrigation at the Katilu scheme with over 200 other members of the nomadic community.

They sell their produce to a food processor -based in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, as well as Egerton University, an agricultural college located northwest of Nairobi.

The two institutions buy a kilo of unshelled groundnuts at 72 shillings (0.57 U.S. dollars), earning the pastoralists good money.

"From the money I get from groundnuts, I can buy food, pay school fees and cater for my other needs," Akiru said.

While among the pastoralists it's mainly women who used to farm crops with the scarce rains, as men herded cattle or took part in raids, the latter has changed with the tide as climate change effects hit pastoralism.

Kennedy Yegon, an officer of the National Irrigation Authority, a government agency, noted that as many men as women have taken up crop farming in Turkana.

There are at least five irrigation schemes in the vast county namely Katilu, Nauren Puu, Naakot, Kachoda, and Lokirieret using water mainly from the Turkwell river that snakes through the arid area.

The schemes are run by both national and county governments and employ furrow and drip irrigation methods.

The schemes have not only boosted food production in the arid region but also propelled the shift to crop farming, therefore, significantly reducing climate conflicts.

"The good thing is that most farmers at these schemes are doing commercial and contractual farming making their ventures marketable. This is making many take up crop farming as they have a ready market," he said.

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