Effects of Destocking Interventions on Pastoralist’s Resilience to Climate Change: A Case of Ijara Sub County, Garissa County, Kenya.

Abstract

Climate changes have been acknowledged as a major challenge to pastoral production systems. Climate variability is very high in arid and semi-arid lands and pastoralists have had to cope with challenges such as droughts and floods. Several Early Warning Systems (EWS) have not done much in eliciting early action from pastoralists nor provided adequate information for interventions to support pastoralists during disasters to prevent major losses when the shocks occur. In Garissa County, pastoralists have relied on grassy, arid savannahs for herding animals in the past. However, these rangelands are now under intense pressure. This has greatly led to a decline in livestock production. For example, in Ijara sub-county, Garissa County, dependence on livestock as a source of livelihood has declined by twenty one percent in the last 10 years. Farmers’ vulnerability and poverty have consequently increased to over seventy percent, compared with the national average of forty eight percent. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of destocking interventions on pastoralist's resilience to climate change: A Case of Ijara Sub-County, Garissa, Kenya. The following are the objectives that guided this study, to examine the factors that influence the prevalence of destocking programs by pastoralist communities, to examine the types of destocking intervention used , to assess the effects of destocking interventions to climate change adaptation by pastoralists, to establish the challenges facing implementation of destocking programs and to explore measures to improve effectiveness of destocking programs for pastoralist’s resilience to climate change in Ijara Sub- County, Garissa Kenya. Using a descriptive research design, the study focused on 2,800 pastoralists in Ijara Sub-County, with a sample of 137 chosen via simple random sampling. Data collection was conducted using semi-structured questionnaires. Quantitative data was analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics and presented in tables while qualitative data underwent content analysis. The analysis and processing of data were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 29. The study revealed that several factors influenced the prevalence of destocking interventions significantly availability of labor during the destocking exercise predicted the likelihood of pastoralists take part in these interventions in Ijara Sub-County (mean=4.44, Std=0.65). The study also found that types of destocking interventions, particularly commercial destocking, had a significant positive effect on pastoralist resilience (B=0.202, p=0.000). Effects of destocking interventions on resilience were substantial, with the regression model explaining seventy percent of the variation in pastoralist resilience. Despite challenges in implementation, such as livestock diseases and cultural resistance, these challenges showed a positive effect on resilience (B=0.173, p=0.000), suggesting that overcoming them could further enhance resilience. Measures to improve effectiveness, especially climate-smart pastoral education, demonstrated a significant positive effect on resilience (B=0.242, p=0.000). The beneficiaries of the study findings are the pastoralists in Ijara Sub County and Garissa County GovernmentMinistry of Agriculture Pastoral Economy. The study concludes that destocking interventions significantly enhance pastoralist resilience to climate change but require addressing implementation challenges. Recommendations include implementing comprehensive climate-smart pastoral education programs, developing early warning systems, and establishing market price stabilization mechanisms to enhance the effectiveness of destocking interventions.