March 2010

Drought severity and their effects on rural livelihoods in Laikipia district, Kenya

Over 80% of Kenya land mass fall under arid and semi arid lands (ASAL), which are prone to frequent droughts. About one third of Kenya’s population lives in the ASAL and largely depends on rain-fed agriculture as their source of livelihoods. However, most of the agricultural activities are constrained by recurrent droughts. To analyse the effects of droughts on rural livelihoods, this study was carried out in the...

Author(s):   Julius Mburu Huho, Josephine K. W. Ngaira and Harun O. Ogindo  

March 2010

Spatial and temporal analysis of recent climatological data in Tanzania

  Recent climate variability over Tanzania is evaluated through the analysis of spatial and temporal distributions of meteorological variables including rainfall, relative humidity (RH), maximum temperature (Tmax) and minimum temperature (Tmin) in an annual and seasonal time scale for 30 years (1971 - 2000) at 45 meteorological stations for rainfall and 27 stations for Tmax, Tmin and RH. Statistical parameters...

Author(s):   Ladislaus B. Chang’a, Pius Z. Yanda and James Ngana