Get reliable rangeland science

Changing climate, growing populations, settlement and increasing land area needed for crop production leads to further rangeland degradation and pastoralists who depend on mobility for their livelihoods face greater challenges, uncertainty and risk.� The above conditions lead to lack of water and pasture in traditional grazing areas and along livestock migration routes often resulting in increased resource based conflict, higher livestock mortalities, poverty and non-sustainable coping strategies that further exacerbate an already precarious eco-system. Drought, erratic rainfall and lack of pasture and water influence livestock body condition, reproductive capacity and marketability, leading to unfavorable terms of trade for the pastoralists and short and long term food insecurity and malnourishment. All sectors of society are affected and there is need to focus on impact at family and community level in order to develop effective risk management and response strategies. Attaining food security remains a major commitment of the all governments in Africa. For example the Kenya government has�outlined in the Agriculture Sector Development Support Programme (ASDSP 2010-2020) as well as the Vision 2030 Economic pillar its endovor to realise zero hunger by the year 2030. The population of Kenya which stands now at over 40 million is dependent on agriculture as the main stay. However against this backdrop, there remain major challenges in attaining this noble objective. �More often than not, lack of accurate prediction and analysis to address the recurrent food insecurity results into cyclic nature of same impacts season after season. A novel web-based Predictive �Early Warning System decision support tool was developed by FAO in collaboration with Texas A and M University and the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA). �The tool integrates near real-time forage quantity assessment, short and long-term forecasting of forage and livestock water status to allow stakeholders to examine risk and identify potential tradeoffs and responses associated with drought and changing climate.