Pasture production and conservation training manual.

The impacts of droughts on the population have been increasing exponentially from 1970s to date. Drought intensity coupled with climate change, have adversely affected the livelihood of many pastoral and non-pastoral communities in the ASAL areas of Kenya. This has immensely affected forage supply for livestock which is the main livelihood option. The community’s actions have also contributed much to the increasing frequencies of droughts which threatens their livelihoods. Main activities by communities that have worked against them include; over grazing, deforestation and unplanned settlement and water development. As a result, many communities are vulnerable to natural and manmade disasters and continue to live below the poverty line. This however, put pressure on the current resource governance system to come up with suitable plans to alleviate poverty and build the resilience of these communities. Pasture production and reseeding is among the interventions that will contribute to building resilience of pastoral households in these areas, besides the critical need for proper grazing and rangeland management practices. This manual will provide insights on pasture agronomy, management and utilization in the context of pastoral production system. This is important since we need to meet the nutritional demands of cattle and small stock (shoats) and camel in extreme drought situation. While, we also still need to protect our grazing lands from degradation.