Investment in pastoralists could help combat east Africa food crisis

Underinvestment in livestock-based systems in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya have contributed to the extreme food insecurity in the Horn of Africa. Governments need to build a coalition of support for pastoralists to tap their potential for economic development in east Africa,  Jeff Hill, director for policy at USAid, said. The crisis in the Horn has focused the minds of policy makers on the need to improve food security in the region, with a particular focus on small farmers and how to build up their resilience to forestall extreme hunger in the future. Despite the G20 agriculture summit in Paris in June, emergency meetings in Rome, Istanbul and Addis Ababa, governments have been criticised for failing to deliver on previous pledges that might have forestalled the current crisis. Read more here.
Mark Tran, Guardian 

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