Sheep : the panty of the herd

In my last field work in Bama in Burkina Faso, we had a very long and interesting discussion with the livestock union, bringing together the association for dairy farmer, for fattening farmer and butchers.

We had a lengthy discussion with them about their cattle keeping systems and their challenges. No word was lost about goats and sheep. So we did as always, we just asked. 

We discovered that cattle keeper do not really keep goat because they have different grazing patterns. Therefore one cannot go on transhumance with cattle and goats. Also, in their understanding, if someone has goats, is complete, meaning it is a system on its own. 

However, a cattle keeper will always keep sheep. They have similar grazing pattern than cattle and therefore can be kept together. Often livestock keeper have a breeding strategy, and manage their herd accordingly. So they do not want to sell off cattle when they have a urgent money need. That's why they keep sheep : in order to have something small to sell off to pay for something unexpected, such as a family member who gets sick and one need money for health care. It is a risk management strategy that allows them to not touch their herd. "Sheep is the panty of the herd" they told us. The last thing you can strip before you have to touch you herd. 

Making geo-information available for smallholders through business

Yesterday, I was invited to Safari park Hotel for a match making event on how to use Geo-information, mainly from satellite images for business purpose in Africa and reach out to the farmers. The meeting brought together NGOs, insurances, banks, farmers' organization, mobile payment companies or research institutions. It was organized by Dutch space office and agri-pro focus.

The meeting will followed by a call for implementing projects in selected countries that will allow to link-up the last mile, i.e. bring the Geo-information to the smallholders in the form of a business idea.

The call will contain some hard core criteria, such as having a Dutch partner, having private sector partners (i.e. having a business model) or using satellite images. However, there are a bunch of other outcome criterias, such as how many smallholders need to reach out is yet unclear. A dialogue between donor and partners has started to come up with smart indicators, and hopefully will be flexible and part of a negotiation.You can find more information about the up-coming call here.

ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute) was prominent guest, I was proud to represent and to present in the plenary session. We have been widely recognized for our work on the index based livestock insurances (IBLI).



The insurance uses satellite images to derive NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) and livestock mortality data to create an index. When the index indicates a drought, payments are done to pastoralists regardless the livestock has died or not.

First informal discussion took place with some of the partners to enhance the efficiency and the reach out of the insurance. There is definitely scope to follow-up.

Unconventional way to fight against famine : Insurances

Many of my posts discussed what to do in area with famine. The problem in emergency situation is that it generally takes time to get the finances to start any emergency relief. But smallholders in drought prone zone know very well about the about the risk they are facing and if given the opportunity are more than willing to reduce this risk.
Drought insurance is one answer to this problem : it allows a smallholders to pay a small amount of money, and if she/he becomes a victim of the drought, she/he immediately get compensation which will allow him to adapt.
See more about the Ethiopian drought insurances schemes :
More about the Kenyan schemes