Farmers’ Livelihoods Decimated By Somalia’s Recent Droughts

Aug 04, 2023

Approximately half of all households in Somalia are headed by women, and women are disproportionately suffering from the country’s compounding challenges of climate change, conflict and food shortages.

Agriculture and livestock provide a livelihood for vast numbers of Somalis, including many women. Yet for many pastoralists (sheep and cattle farmers) the recent failed rainy seasons have decimated their sole source of income.

Ibada, a 54-year-old mother of 7 children, lives in the Sharaf-weyn village of Awdal region in western Somaliland. Ibada had been responsible for 100 goats, enabling her to earn a secure living, but Somalia’s prolonged drought meant she became unable to feed or provide water for her goats.

Ibada watched helplessly in distress as, 1 by 1, her goats died. Without them, she had no means to provide for her family.

Increasing resilience through climate-smart agriculture

Islamic Relief’s Strengthening Agricultural Resilience (SARIA) project aims to increase resilience among livestock farmers. The project is designed to address the challenges of recurring drought and food insecurity in Somalia by supplying farmers with productive livestock and implementing climate-smart agriculture techniques to better protect them against the impacts of climate change.

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Video: 2026 T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science - Dan Weary

T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science: "Using science to assess and improve the welfare of dairy cattle"

Dan Weary is a Professor at the University of British Columbia. Dan did his BSc and MSc at McGill and Doctorate at Oxford before co-founding UBC’s Animal Welfare Program where he now co-directs this active research group. His research focuses on understanding the perspectives of animals and applying these insights to develop methods of assessing animal welfare and improving the lives of animals. His work has helped drive changes in practices (including the adoption of higher milk rations for calves and pain management for disbudding) and housing methods (including the adoption of social housing for pre-weaned calves). He also studies cow comfort and lameness, social interactions among cows, and interactions between cows, human handlers and technologies like automated millking systems that are increasingly used on farms. His presentation will outline key questions in cattle welfare, highlight recent UBC research addressing them, and showcase innovative methods for improving the lives of cattle and their caretakers.