Draught can be defined as the deficiency of moisture in a given area for long period of time which can cause   the land to be dry and hence promotes    the soil to be blown away   by wind, water and other agents of soil erosion. the horn of Africa accounts to be one of the most affected sites of    recurrent droughts -that it has been continuously occurring for the last decades   and caused   great loses of life and property.

Due to the climate and harsh environment it enforced   to the communities   who live in these areas to adopt and create newly ways of prevented extreme climates such recurrent drought, extreme weathers and other environmental problems.

According to the report of time revolution in Kenya that 3.75 million people in the pastoralist and marginal cropping areas of Kenya were affected by a food crisis and related factors of drought.

The most vulnerable were the 1.4 million pastoralists in the north and northeastern districts of Wajir, Turkana, Isiolo, Mandera, Marsabit, and garissa. In those areas, the failure of short season crops and decreasing livestock productivity (due to water scarcity, increase in livestock disease, and longer trekking distances) caused severe food insecurity.

The situation was further complicated by weakened community coping mechanisms, and a highly unstable security situation (particularly in northeastern Kenya and the Dadaab camps), that was preventing humanitarian assistance from reaching beneficiaries.  Not only   a Kenya but there are the other  regions  in the horn that  are  in its  severe  state  among those  include  Somaliland , Somalia   and the countries  in its  neighbor .

Somaliland which is  a self-proclaimed  state  and broke  away from  what so called  republic  of Somalia  have been  one of  the obvious   developing  nations  in the  horn  Africa  which  has been  developing  towards  the infrastructure  such  health service , educations  and  other necessary  social  amenities  but  in other hand  it  has in a  continuous struggle for the  environmental challenges  amongst  recurrent  droughts  that  has been reoccurring  for  the  last  decades .

 To what  Extent   does the droughts impact is severe? 

 According to Danish refugee council Across Somalia, people have lost much of their livestock since the drought started in 2015. Poor families, who have the least resources and ability to adapt, have lost 40–60% of their herds in Somaliland and 20–40% in the rest of the country.  The drought has also devastated crops, forcing more than 1.15 million people to leave their homes between January 2016 and May 2018, 3 often only once they had become malnourished and weak. Beyond familiar social and economic support networks, people’s survival has become precarious, and their efforts to survive have often put them in yet more danger.

Due to the absence of roles government and the widely spread of the corruption it caused for the aid to  be diverted  to  wrong astray  which in turn accelerated   for the  suffer  and  the  death  of  many  poor  families  whose  their  coping  mechanisms  have been   weak  and  could no longer  able  to  continue  to exist   because of the  hunger  and poverty   resulted  from  the destruction of their  only assets  in which their livelihood  depend on.

The preparedness and   mitigation of droughts is  an important  when  it  comes  the management  of  drought  and  reducing  its effect  as the reduction  of the impact  and  improving the productivity  could  be major  factor  to increase  the  economic status  and  in turn improving  the  livelihood  of  our  community  in  Somaliland.  The  absence  of the  role  of the  government which  was  supposed  to  make  stiff policy  to  destruction  of trees  and  the  widely  use  of the  vehicles in the  rural areas  are   accelerated    and  contributed   to the  environmental  degradation  which  in turn brought   to the reduction of the  productivity  and  the heavy erosions  which  occur  mostly  in the  summary  in other  hand   the  communities  in the ruaral  areas  instead  of  participation    to the  protection  and  conservation  of   the environment  they  are  most nuisance  to the  environment  as there are  no rule to prevent  them  to  reach  a damage  to the  environment.

1.3: Traditional   and modern   copping mechanism of drought

The early inhabitants of Somaliland were nomadic   pastoralist who mainly depends their livelihood feeding and to get cloth and basic needs among  a shelter  in which  they hide  themselves from the  harsh  climates  and  extreme  weathers  and  that may reach them a  harm  or lead them  to death.  As we mentioned the early people in our country were mostly nomadic who move their livestock in searching of pasture and  water  but  those  who use  to cultivating  were  used to do the following amongst:

Feeding practice:

Livestock

dependents provided limited/controlled feed/fodder to their

livestock due to scarcity of resources of feed and fodder

during drought conditions. Sometimes they fed to animals

only ensure to its survival or to maintain production at some

extent to fulfill their family consumption. Upadhyay et al.

(2009) reported that animals should be fed during morning

hour because heat in the middle of the day would on peak

due to higher environmental temperature. Therefore,

majority of livestock dependents of severely drought prone

district (Bhagalpur) followed this practice.

Livestock

dependents provided limited/controlled feed/fodder to their

livestock due to scarcity of resources of feed and fodder

during drought conditions. Sometimes they fed to animals

only ensure to its survival or to maintain production at some

extent to fulfill their family consumption. Upadhyay et al.

(2009) reported that animals should be fed during morning

hour because heat in the middle of the day would on peak

due to higher environmental temperature. Therefore,

majority of livestock dependents of severely drought prone

district (Bhagalpur) followed this practice.

Livestock

dependents provided limited/controlled feed/fodder to their

livestock due to scarcity of resources of feed and fodder

during drought conditions. Sometimes they fed to animals

only ensure to its survival or to maintain production at some

extent to fulfill their family consumption. Upadhyay et al.

(2009) reported that animals should be fed during morning

hour because heat in the middle of the day would on peak

due to higher environmental temperature. Therefore,

majority of livestock dependents of severely drought prone

district (Bhagalpur) followed this practice

Livestock

dependents provided limited/controlled feed/fodder to their

livestock due to scarcity of resources of feed and fodder

during drought conditions. Sometimes they fed to animals

only ensure to its survival or to maintain production at some

extent to fulfill their family consumption. Upadhyay et al.

(2009) reported that animals should be fed during morning

hour because heat in the middle of the day would on peak

due to higher environmental temperature. Therefore,

majority of livestock dependents of severely drought prone

district (Bhagalpur) followed this practice

Livestock

dependents provided limited/controlled feed/fodder to their

livestock due to scarcity of resources of feed and fodder

during drought conditions. Sometimes they fed to animals

only ensure to its survival or to maintain production at some

extent to fulfill their family consumption. Upadhyay et al.

(2009) reported that animals should be fed during morning

hour because heat in the middle of the day would on peak

due to higher environmental temperature. Therefore,

majority of livestock dependents of severely drought prone

district (Bhagalpur) followed this practice

Livestock

dependents provided limited/controlled feed/fodder to their

livestock due to scarcity of resources of feed and fodder

during drought conditions. Sometimes they fed to animals

only ensure to its survival or to maintain production at some

extent to fulfill their family consumption. Upadhyay et al.

(2009) reported that animals should be fed during morning

hour because heat in the middle of the day would on peak

due to higher environmental temperature. Therefore,

majority of livestock dependents of severely drought prone

district (Bhagalpur) followed this practice

Livestock

dependents provided limited/controlled feed/fodder to their

livestock due to scarcity of resources of feed and fodder

during drought conditions. Sometimes they fed to animals

only ensure to its survival or to maintain production at some

extent to fulfill their family consumption. Upadhyay et al.

(2009) reported that animals should be fed during morning

hour because heat in the middle of the day would on peak

due to higher environmental temperature. Therefore,

majority of livestock dependents of severely drought prone

district (Bhagalpur) followed this practice

Livestock

dependents provided limited/controlled feed/fodder to their

livestock due to scarcity of resources of feed and fodder

during drought conditions. Sometimes they fed to animals

only ensure to its survival or to maintain production at some

extent to fulfill their family consumption. Upadhyay et al.

(2009) reported that animals should be fed during morning

hour because heat in the middle of the day would on peak

due to higher environmental temperature. Therefore,

majority of livestock dependents of severely drought prone

district (Bhagalpur) followed this practice

Livestock dependents provided limited/controlled feed/fodder to their livestock due to scarcity of resources of feed and fodder during drought conditions. Sometimes they fed to animals only ensure to its survival or to maintain production at some extent to fulfill their family consumption.

Use of feeding materials:

Livestock dependents that lack of feed and fodder abundantly during the period of drought and hence decrease in feed intake of their livestock results into decrease in productivity of livestock. Therefore, they used to provide extra crop residues, extra concentrates to the livestock to maintaining productivity (Maiti et al2014a)

Change in cropping pattern

Mono-cropping (i.e. growing the same crop year after year on the same land), instead of rotation of crops, has been practiced since the start of agriculture in the area over a century ago (Peels, C. V. A. 1900 first impression. 1986).

However, because of the low amount of rains and recurrent drought causing crop failure, agro-pastoralists have shifted their production system to mixed cropping (cereals, horticulture), crop diversification and inter cropping (cereal, legumes)

1.4 Traditional techniques of preparedness of droughts

Faith and Religious Beliefs

Somaliland peoples are well known for their strong religious ties and the involvement of religious groups in the development and leadership of communities. It is found that faith (predominantly Muslim) and involvement in religious communities were an important coping strategy across the   country.

BY; Abdirasak  Hassan Ali  { Mr Chance )