This archive report was first published on 2 August 2019.
Maasai Herders Turn to Crop Farming Amid Drought ¶
James Shakita, a 43-year-old Maasai herder, has been raising cattle for over 30 years. However, a severe drought in southern Kenya's Kajiado County last year decimated his herd, leaving him with fewer than 80 animals.
Shakita decided to break with generations of tradition and swap some of his cows for crops. He used the money from selling a few of his cows to sink a borehole for irrigation and devoted a third of his 30-acre farm to planting kale, onions, and tomatoes.
His first harvest made him over Sh2 million, allowing him to support his family and manage the size of his herd more effectively.
Shakita is not alone in his decision. More than 232,000 livestock died in Kajiado County during the 2017-2018 drought, and the number of Maasai herders taking up crop farming has grown by 40 percent over the past decade.
County official Jackline Koin said the country had registered more than 5,000 farmers who were previously solely herders. Down the road from Shakita's farm, another herder, Brian Kikon, 30, also grows onions and tomatoes on a small piece of his family's expansive 45-acre farm.
Professor Wilfred Subbo, a development anthropology expert at the University of Nairobi, believes all Maasai herders should be shrinking their herds to survive Kenya's frequent droughts. He also suggests that Maasai herders consider rearing hybrid cattle, such as the Holstein-Friesian dairy cow.
Maasai culture measures a community member's wealth and social standing by the number of heads of cattle they own. However, with the effects of climate change, the Kajiado government has started supplying herders with high-yielding crop seeds and training farmers on sustainable cultivation techniques.
Shakita believes the answer lies in a government-run abattoir, which could help stabilise the market and allow herders to sell their cattle at the going rate.
