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Kenya

Narok County: Drought Early Warning Bulletin for August 2014

Attachments

Situation overview

  • The overall early warning stage for the county is NORMAL, with a worsening trend. The long rains season performed poorly with late onset and early cessation. This affected production.

  • A total of about 28 mm of rainfall was received during the month, less than 31 mm received in the previous month. The rainfall was light with minimal impact on water availability and pasture/browse.

  • The quality and quantity of pasture/browse varied from fair to poor and on downward trend. Available pasture is approximated to last less than one month if the trend continues, especially in pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods zones which received no rainfall.

  • Water quality and quantity decreased as rains declined. Main sources were Rivers, Wells, Pans/Dams and a few boreholes as was in the previous month.

  • Distance to water points, especially for livestock increased mostly in pastoral and agro-pastoral zones.

  • Livestock body condition for cattle varied from fair to poor a reduction from the previous month, with pastoral areas dominantly poor. While those of shoats remained fair to good as in the previous month in most livelihoods.

  • Herds in pastoral zones (Mosiro, Suswa and Loita) moved to dry season grazing areas. Internal migration in search of water and better pasture continued.

Milk production decreased as a result of decline in pasture. On average 70% of production was consumed at the household level and the rest for sale. The trend of milk production is generally downward.

  • The impact of low yields of maize and beans is being felt as availability reduces. This poses threat to food security in the entire county.

  • The average price for cattle was Kshs 14,500, a further decrease from Kshs 14,600 (previous month), attributed to the high supply of stock at the market in order to buy cereals and pay school fees. Goat prices decreased to Kshs 2,900 from Kshs 3,100 during the previous month. This too was to buy school materials and other household expenditures

  • Maize prices decreased to Kshs. 62.00 per kg, from Ksh 65.00 whereas one kg of beans declined to Ksh 110 from Kshs. 124.00 of the previous month. The slight decrease in maize and beans prices is attributed to the harvest experienced in parts of the county.

  • There were no incidences of human disease occurrence, nor outbreak reported during the month.

  • The proportion of children at risk of malnutrition decreased to 10.0% from 10.3% of the previous month. This is attributed to the just concluded harvest mostly in mixed farming areas that has seen reduced prices at market level and milk availability at the household level, since milk consumption was restricted to children in most households.