Nakuru — Women in rural areas and informal sectors are more vulnerable to the increased prices and unavailability of livestock-sourced foods in Kenya and the greater Horn of Africa region, the African Union-InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) has said.
The crisis has been attributed to the ongoing feed and fodder shortage in the region, where at least 8.9 million livestock have died due to drought.
Of those, more than 2 million livestock died in Kenya, eroding livelihoods and leading to a massive loss of income, the AU-IBAR said.
According to AU-IBAR Ag Director Dr Nick Mwankpa, the crisis has been occasioned by climate change, the global COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
"Feeds constitute 60-70 percent of the total cost of animal production, the crises have exposed the significant weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the African feed and fodder input and supply chains," he said during the kick-off of a five-day high-level workshop in Naivasha.
The workshop has been organised by the bureau in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Mwankpa noted that addressing feed and fodder shortages in the short-term protects livelihoods and ensures business continuity and sustainable livelihoods."
AU-IBAR Resilient African Feed and Fodder Systems Project proposes strengthening analytical capacity for evidence based decision making and attracting investment, identifying and up-scaling viable existing approaches in addressing the crisis.
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"The multiplicity and increasing frequency and severity of shocks and their complex and interlocking effects demands an approach that will also strengthen resilience in feed and fodder systems," Mwankpa said.
A communication expert at AU-IBAR, Fiona Imbali said a fifth of the African population which accounts to about 280 million people was undernourished with another 55 million children below five years also malnourished.
She said it was critical that African governments and their development partners loot at some of the issues that were affecting women and children in regards to the feed and fodder sector because the effects trickle down to dairy products which are vital components in the human diet.
"Often, the prices of milk and meat are too high to an extent where families cannot afford the products and this has really affected nutrition statistics in Africa," she said.
Imbali said women should at the fore-front in the feed and fodder value chain because according to the World Bank, they provide 40 to 60 per cent of the labour in the agriculture sector yet they are not given the limelight and the capacity building that they require to be involved.
"Let women be engaged in the food and fodder sector, not just as the caretakers of livestock but as part of the decision-making," she said.
