Masaai Livestock and Land Management Enterprise

ORGANIZATION NAME: Masaai Center for Regenerative Pastoralism

LOCATION: Kenya

SUMMARY: We will organize a Maasai Beef Enterprise in our village. Community health and education, water, feed storage, transportation, and herd management are limiting factors. We will address these limitations by boring a well that will be used for culinary water as well as livestock and irrigation water for gardens.

PROBLEM SPACE: “Clean, safe culinary water is not available; children die of dysentery. Women and children have to walk to search for water and often must walk for several hours a day. Time spent searching for water takes them away from school and other more productive tasks.

Grazing land is degraded due to climate change and grazing patterns that have been forced on the Maasai by the government due to population and development pressure. This is a regional problem.

Cattle numbers have decreased due to poor grazing land condition. This results in starvation for some of our people in the dry season. The proud Massai must receive supplemental food from the government in these times.

Poverty caused by depleted grazing land is causing the brightest of our young people to seek jobs in the city. Lack of good jobs causes alcoholism.

We have no transportation to attend meetings. This limits access to medical care and markets.

We love our cattle. They are our livelihood and are integral in maintaining Maasai traditions and culture.”

SOLUTION:
“We will drill a 500 foot well and install a pump that can be driven by a very large photo voltaic system. We have the government permits and have worked with a driller to establish feasibility.
We will install tanks to hold water to be available for culinary, stock water, and irrigation. Culinary water will be available to others for a small fee to offset maintenance costs of the well.
We will install pipes and valves to convey water to a new trough in the corral.
We will purchase weaned calves in the rainy season to utilize available forage in a scientifically planned and controlled grazing pattern
We will improve the genetics of our base herd for reproduction, disease resistance, and beef conformation.
We will learn what science has to offer in Management Intensive Grazing, adopt the principles on our land, and teach others by example and discussion. Intensive grazing Management is the old Massai way, and we will explain to our people how to make it apply to our new owned beef farms.”

CONTACT: [email protected]