ANIMAL HEALTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS IN EAST AFRICA.
Once again I like to share with you my thought about the health situation for livestock effected by climate change in our region.
Agriculture and livestock are amongst the climate sensitive economic in the developing countries whilst the rural poor communities are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. As we all know climate change is real and is happening now. Current knowledge on the relationship between climate change effects and animal health is lacking particularly in East Africa despite of livestock agriculture being economically important in the region. Many related studies in the region reported on the impacts of climate change on human health compared to animal health. This deficiency has created knowledge gap which affects livestock management authorities and several development projects.
The effects of climate change on livestock production and health could be an additional significant burden to the already existing problems that hold back livestock development in the region. In addition, lack of economic development and institutional capacity makes the situation more challenging. Climate change impacts have the potential to weaken progress made in improving the socio-economic well-being of East Africans (according to WWF 2006 report). Significantly, the climate variability will have a serious effect on pastoralists whose livelihood depends upon livestock for food, economic security and cultural preservation. The impact of climate change also increases the problem of water scarcity; pasture land shortage and diseases dynamics. Diseases in livestock result in severe effects on livestock survival, marketability, animal health and livelihoods.
The East Africa region is characterized by wide diverse climates from desert to forest over comparatively small areas. Rainfall seasonality is complex, changing within tens of kilometers. The rainfall cycle for the year is bimodal with long rains from March to May and short rains occurring from October to December (WWF 2006 report). In the past, the region has been prone to floods and drought which have had severe negative impacts on key sectors of economies of most countries of East Africa. These include agricultural production, health status, water availability, energy use and biodiversity and ecosystem services (including tourism). In the late seventies and eighties drought caused widespread famine and economic hardships. Reports from risk assessment studies indicate that that future climate change may lead to a change in the frequency or severity of such extreme weather events, potentially worsening these impacts, together with annual and seasonal rainfall changes. In addition, the extreme weather events such as drought and floods will have a potential negative consequence on livestock-agriculture sector. Any outcome of the impact will have a strong distributional pattern and amplify inequalities in health status and access to resources, due to apparent spatial variations in vulnerability. Furthermore, vulnerability is exacerbated by existing developmental challenges and low adaptive capacity of rural communities (DFID 2009 report).
Livestock production contributes significantly to the economy of East African countries and has been recognized to be among the most significant sources of revenues in the region. However, the large proportion of livestock including cattle is owned by small scale poor farmers who are facing several challenges including variation of climate patterns. Being in the pool of poverty, climate change has direct impacts on small scale livestock keepers and affects their resilience to livelihood including food security. Without understanding current and future climate variability these challenge will be persistent and growing. It is predicted that, by 2020, Africa will have close to a quarter of its population experiencing water stress, low agricultural yields, and natural disasters like droughts and famines, as well as increased negative health impacts. Despite of socio-economic in the region, there is little information so far documented on that can give a good picture of current knowledge on potential impacts of climate change and livestock production and health in the region. This article of mine will help to address this gap by generating information that will be useful to various stakeholders, from the ground up to international level. It will enhance or promote a new thinking on the best way the livestock sector in the region can be managed in a changing climate towards improved and sustainable livestock production.
East African livestock production systems
Livestock production systems existing in the region may be divided into two main groups; these are commercial and small scale farmers (Mc Dermont et al 1999 report). Small scale is predominantly practiced in the region and is carried out by small family units independently (Perry et al 2007). The small scale production can be categorized into groups depending on the integration of livestock and crops or on the level of commercialization. Small scale farmers may be defined into two groups. Subsistence farmers are the ones found in remote poor areas and depend fully on their production; they have limited capital for investments, and increase in production depends largely on climatic factors and other factors such as additional labor, animal manure and livestock management practices. Semi subsistence farmers are found near the main road and urban markets; they mainly depend on farming but the surplus is often sold.
Mixed farming is practiced when livestock and crop productions are integrated in the same farm. Pastoralist is based almost entirely on livestock production, with little or no integration with crops. These systems are found mainly in arid or semi-arid zones and are characterized by high animal mobility. Considering the types of livestock production systems in East Africa and its dependence on environmental conditions this makes the sector very vulnerable to climate change. The situation is worsened by other factors such as low skills and knowledge of farmers/producers, low input/output production methods, ineffective private and public animal health and laboratory services, these factors leave the sector incapable to deal with the challenges caused by climate change impact (Van den Bossche 2008).
Direct and indirect impact
Now let me discuss the direct and indirect impact of this situation. To start with direct effect of climate change as a result of increased ambient temperature and concurrent changes in heat exchanges causes heat stress which influences growth, reproduction performance, milk production, wool production, animal health and welfare (Walter et al 2010; Reilly 1996 reports). Heat stress suffered by animals will reduce feed intake and result in poor growth performance, although indigenous cattle are heat tolerant to high temperatures. Extremely high temperature caused by extreme weather events experienced at this era may still affect resulting in reduced milk and meat production and reduced time for for aging as they prefer to remain in the shade (Robertshaw and Finch 1976 report). Additionally, heat related mortality and morbidity would increase. Climate change is also expected to increase the risks of drought and floods that occur with El Niño in the future and this could result in serious high mortality of livestock due to drought resulting in pasture shortage and water scarcity which will aggravate the existing conflicts on natural resources and food insecurity in the region. Similarly El Niño may result in diseases outbreaks related to flooding.
Indirect impact
These are changes that influence quantity and quality of pastures, fodder crops and grains, water availability, severity and distribution of diseases and parasites. Pastures shortage and water scarcity in drought areas resulting from extreme weather conditions and major anthropogenic factors have been reported (IPCC 2001).
Changes in the frequency and distribution of diseases due to climate variability have been reported; however, estimating the real impact of climate change on livestock health over a long period still is a challenge. It seems difficult to separate non-climatic factors from climatic factors. The best way in estimating a future impact of climate change based on empirically observed relationship between climatic conditions and their effects on the biological processes that determine diseases transmission in space and time (Rogers 1996; Rogers and Randolph 2006 report).
To conclude my discussion I like to make an observation that despite the truth for climate change to be one of the crosscutting issue/agenda for now in our society still there are some sectors not well address the climate change impact like this one of animal health. So I make a call to all stakeholders concern to pay close attention, including of course the media institutions, government agencies, private sector, academicians, as well as civil society organizations.
Prepared by
Issa Isihaka
Climate Tracker
East and Southern African Youth
Climate Change Alliance
(ESAY CCA Tanzania)
DAR ES SALAAM
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