Tackling environmental shocks in the drylands

University partnership harnesses local knowledge and data innovation to combat environmental shocks.

In this blog Dr Nathan Jensen, Senior Research Fellow at the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems, and research lead for the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action, outlines some of the challenges facing communities in the drylands, and some of the activities of the Jameel Observatory intended to help.

Environmental risks

For the hundreds of millions of pastoralists living in the drylands, extensively grazing livestock is often the most productive, if not the only, livelihood strategy available.

Pastoralists and the livestock that they herd directly contribute massively to the national economies of many countries of the world, and the livestock value chains provide nourishment and employment opportunities throughout the broader population.

While extensive gazing is extremely productive, it is also extremely vulnerable to drought, much more so than other types of rain-fed agriculture, Dr Jensen explains.

For pastoralists, drought can destroy the household’s productive capital and wealth through livestock mortality. This dynamic can result in a so-called poverty trap, whereby households that do not have livestock cannot exploit the extensive rangelands offered by the drylands and are therefore unable to produce the income necessary to purchase livestock and grow out of poverty.

Mitigation strategies

While pastoral cultures have developed many strategies for protecting themselves from drought, such as mobility, herd diversification and livestock redistribution, these mechanisms cannot support all households through long periods of drought.

In many cases, these strategies are being undermined by loss of access to open rangelands. This is often the result of the very policies aimed at helping people living in the drylands—for example in providing education or health centers, introducing dryland crops, land reform and irrigation schemes.

Such dynamics, whereby policies and interventions aimed at improving the lives of individuals undermine the resilience of the pastoral system, has long been a challenge for the drylands.

Data and community

Working as part of the Jameel Observatory, our experts are seeking to address the challenges of hunger and malnutrition in dryland areas by merging local knowledge with innovations in data science and humanitarian action.

By leveraging the insights of communities facing on-the-ground threats, the Observatory aims to predict, prepare for and overcome climate-related food security issues.

Their efforts are centred on using data and other evidence to anticipate and mitigate environmental shocks and the impacts of climate change, thereby safeguarding human and environmental well-being.

Often, the models that are used to predict environmental shocks and food insecurity have little data from less-developed regions,” explains Dr Jensen. “While high-frequency and high-resolution data is extremely important for forecasts, there is little effort to collect it in some regions.
Dr Nathan Jensen, Senior Research Fellow at the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems, and research lead for the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action

To bridge this gap, recent projects have begun generating detailed weather and socio-economic data in Africa.

Local needs

Experts at the Jameel Observatory are currently working with community members to repackage existing early warning communications into forms that are more useful and impactful.

This includes adjusting content, language, mode of communication, platform, frequency and the indicators used, Dr Jensen explains.

Our researchers also have several activities looking into how local knowledge and concerns could be integrated into external early warning systems, ensuring that data-gathering and early warning efforts are tailored to meet community needs.

International partnership

The Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action is an international partnership led by the University of Edinburgh with the International Livestock Research Institute, Save the Children, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab and Community Jameel.

This blog has been adapted from an article by Dr Nathan Jensen, written for the Scottish Consortium for Rural Research (SCRR) newsletter.