App comes to the rescue of pastoralists as pasture dwindles

Using the Afriscout app, herders and pastoralists can easily locate and access grazing lands and pastures using the maps embedded in the app. PHOTO | JOSEPH NGUNJIRI | NMG

What you need to know:

  • Using a mobile app called Afriscout, developed by Project Concern International (PCI), a US-based non-profit organisation, the herders from the Maasai community and other pastoralists, can know where to go to graze.
  • The app also tells her the shortest distance, in kilometres, where there is pasture for the animals.
  • Brenda Wandera, PCI’s national programme manager, said information loaded on to the app takes into consideration local sensitivities.
  • She adds that fresh information is loaded onto the app for use by herders every week.

When drought started in Kajiado County at the end of last year, hundreds of herders were left helpless.

The desperate farmers sold their weak cows for as low as Sh500 as others crossed to Tanzania in search of pasture and water.

But the move turned costly as some 1,500 Maasai cows were impounded and auctioned by Tanzanian authorities.
Herders are not out of the woods yet as the drought persists.

The Meteorological Department has equally announced that the long rains that start from March to May would be depressed.

But going forward, the herders would not need to wander in search of pasture and water as technology has come to their rescue.

Using a mobile app called Afriscout, developed by Project Concern International (PCI), a US-based non-profit organisation, the herders from the Maasai community and other pastoralists, can know where to go to graze.

The app uses community defined, custom grazing maps overlaid with satellite vegetation data that is continuously updated via mobile phone.

Esther Sopon, a 53-year-old mother of five, from Matapato North in Kajiado Central is among those who are currently using the app. Esther is able to accurately tell where to take her animals to get pasture.

“With this app in my phone, I am able to tell a place that has received rain recently thus there is some grass. It also tells me places to avoid, especially where there is insufficient pasture and places where our animals are likely to contract diseases,” she explains.

EMBRACE THE TECHNOLOGY

The app also tells her the shortest distance, in kilometres, where there is pasture for the animals. “This app has been a big relief to me,” she says. “Previously we used to go out blindly in search of pasture, with the blind hope that we will chance upon pasture. This was an expensive way of doing things as we sometimes exposed our animals to diseases.”

By being among the first people in her area to embrace the technology, Esther has now been made a community ambassador to encourage people to use the app.

“With this app, I know exactly where I am going and what to expect there as a herder. When the app tells me that there are diseases in the area I want to take my animals, I simply immunise them against that disease,” says Isaac ole Koyei from Ewuaso Kedong.

Brenda Wandera, PCI’s national programme manager, said information loaded on to the app takes into consideration local sensitivities.

“We are particularly keen on reducing conflicts among pastoralist communities. We therefore do not load information about a particular region on to the app if the host community is not comfortable with visitors coming to share their pasture,” she explains.

She adds that fresh information is loaded onto the app for use by herders every week.

“At the moment we are allowing the farmers to use information on the app free of charge for six months. After that we will introduce modest charges,” adds Ms Wandera.

But as the app gains acceptance by farmers, they would have to reckon with other issues like shrinking grazing area, due to rapid urbanisation and the subdivision of land into small units for human settlement.