By Mohamed Ali | BORESHA Project
Mandera, like other ASAL areas of the country and the region, is characterized with recurrent drought which is attributed to either inadequate or total failure of rainfall. Inadequate or lack of precipitation often leads acute shortage of water and pasture which in turn affects livestock body condition leading to low production in milk and meat as well poor livestock market prices. During such difficult times, pastoral households that depend on livestock and their products for their livelihoods suffer the most. They are not able to meet the most basic of needs including access to food, education and health services. BORESHA aims at alleviating the sufferings by getting to grips with the problem and the related hopelessness.
One of the interventions by BORESHA was construction of a state of art fodder store in Neboi location, Mandera. Neboi which is located about 15KM west of Mandera town and has one dispensary, one primary school, one secondary and 2 chiefs representing the national government. The location is one of those that are vulnerable to the recurrent shocks like droughts. In their DRR action planning exercise which aimed at mitigating effects of natural shocks, the community identified construction of fodder store as one of the areas they needed to be supported.
About one month after the completion of construction works, a team of BORESHA staff visited Neboi community to find out how the community was utilizing the facility. It was the last 10 days of September at the tail end of a long Dry Season and the residents experienced high temperatures and moisture stress. Gusts of dust carrying wind blew and made queer sobbing sounds making it difficult to have a telephone conversation. The situation was not as severe as drought emergency but clearly it could fit the description of an alarm stage. We met the chairman of the location’s DRR committee Mr. Mohamed Gaab and other livestock keepers in front of the recently constructed hay store with bundles of hay in hand. The hay store was a hive of activity as community members were busy retrieving the stored hay to hand-feed their livestock at their respective homesteads.
Mohamed, in a colorful Somali sarung and a BORESHA branded T-shirt, receives the team. After greetings, pleasantries and a few jests, Mohamed notes “immediately after the construction of the facility was completed, we moved the little hay that we were keeping on top of our huts”. He jokingly adds, “I am not even sure whether the painting had dried when we were moving in the hay”.
When asked what difference the facility is going to make, Mr. Mohamed, 70, a father of 10 notes, “The facility provides proper storage for the hay that community members produce. Like I told you, we used to keep the hay on top of our huts. It was directly exposed to sun and other elements of weather like wind that sometimes scattered them in the compound and when the compound is littered with leaves and stalks of the hay, it made the whole hay storage thing a dirty and a cumbersome endeavor. Because of the manner and the places, we were keeping the hay, it also attracted termites that did not only feed on the hay but also our huts. While we always wanted to have hay to help mitigate the effects of forage scarcity, the lack of proper storage facility dispirited the community members and unfortunately, droughts always caught us ill-prepared”. He continues, “But with this facility we will produce hay with renewed verve and it will go a long way in managing and mitigating droughts and their effects”
When asked what measures they have put in place to avert occurrence of conflict over use of the facility and access to the fodder stored in it, he says “The facility is a communal facility and, in that case, it is open and accessible to all community members free of charge and without discrimination. However, for proper and seamless operation and utilization of the facility, we have agreed on common rules that are in the best interest of all the community members. This is in the form of a by-law that was agreed upon by the community members and every person who wants to use the facility is first taken through the by-law. DRR committee is the primary structure tasked with the responsibility of managing any friction between the users. For issues that cannot be resolved at this level, they are escalated to the chief and his elders. Measures on conflict is a blend of prevention and management measures. To prevent occurrence of conflict, each user is given a space within the facility and a record of what they store and what they withdraw from their spaces is made. This greatly minimizes confusion and the associated conflicts.”
“The community has been practicing pure pastoralism for many years and have only recently embraced farming. They lack skills in farming, in this case fodder/hay farming and if they can be trained on fodder production, it will also go a long way in enhancing community’s resilience to scarcities. We will also appreciate provision of baling materials so as to make efficient use of the facility especially considering that we have many community members who want use the facility” he concluded.