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Petroline Masaine (right) and her neighbour harvest cactus, preparing it for processing. Credit: Wilson Odhiambo/IPSNAIROBI, July 9 (IPS) - An international academic partnership is helping turn one of Laikipia County’s most destructive and invasive plants, the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia stricta), into a source of food security and clean energy while also helping end perennial resource conflict in the region.
The project, which began in 2017, is already giving communities in Laikipia new hope in their struggle against a destructive plant that is known for swallowing grazing land and injuring livestock.
The partnership is led by the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), in collaboration with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).
Families in Laikipia are now getting new ways of feeding their livestock, cooking meals, and harnessing energy. The project also has the potential to help bring to an end the never-ending fight over grazing land in the region.
Background
Laikipia county, one of Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), is a region dominated by pastoralists who search for pastures for their livestock but the region is plagued with recurrent drought, resulting in constant conflict over the limited resources – could the solution to all this have been staring them in the face all this time?
‘’That is the power of research,’’ said Prof. Willis Owino.
“A plant that caused a lot of problems to both human and livestock has now become a sustainable solution for livelihoods in one of Kenya’s most climate-stressed regions.”
Owino is the project lead and lecturer at JKUAT.
“The Cactus pear (Opuntia stricta) is the most widespread and troublesome invasive plant species in Kenya. It is especially prevalent in Laikipia County, Tsavo East National Park, and the adjacent rangelands, where it creates dense impenetrable thickets that obstruct access to homes, water points, and grazing areas,’’ Owino told IPS.
“In Laikipia, nearly half of the affected households experience annual economic losses ranging from USD 500 to USD 1000 due to the invasion. Currently, the species covers around 70% of Maasai grazing lands in the area. And the proliferation of the cactus has been exacerbated by shifts in land use, particularly the sedentarisation of pastoral communities,’’ said Owino.
Sedentarisation is the transition of formerly nomadic or semi-nomadic populations to a settled, permanent, year-round lifestyle. Often driven by government policies for modernisation, access to services like healthcare, or environmental pressure, this process changes social structures and economic systems from mobility to fixed residency.
According to Owino, this transition has resulted in persistent overgrazing and rangeland degradation, which have created favourable conditions for the cactus to spread.
“Our study shows increased infestation of the spiny cactus in northern Laikipia between 2018 and 2023, indicating that current eradication efforts might not be effective,” Owino explained.
Mechanical control, widely used in the area, has been criticised for its sustainability, given the required resources. Similarly, the introduction of cochineal nearly a decade ago has not suppressed cactus growth as previously envisaged.’’
Cochineal is a parasitic insect that feeds off the prickly pear cactus that grows throughout much of the Americas.
“Other bottlenecks related to cochineal use include predation, ineffective monitoring of already colonised areas, and limited resources for insect multiplication and spread,’’ Owino explained.
Owino said that the cactus negatively impacts biodiversity by outcompeting native grasses and browse species, thereby reducing available forage for both domestic animals and wildlife.
During drought the domestic and wild animals in the rangelands have no alternative forage and this forces them to consume Opuntia cladodes and fruits. This consumption has significant detrimental effects, including mechanical injuries from spines and glochids that cause oral lesions and gastrointestinal distress, a condition known as cactus tongue, which can result in mortality.
“Paradoxically, this foraging behaviour by animals facilitates the cactus’s dispersal as the seeds consumed by animals pass through their digestive systems and are deposited across the rangelands. Secondary dispersal is further aided by birds, elephants, and baboons,’’ he said.
The invasive infestation has created a complex socio-ecological challenge that extends beyond rangeland degradation to include food security, livelihoods, and human-wildlife conflict, particularly due to the lack of pasture caused by elephants invading community lands.
Making the Cactus Useful To the Community
The project is thus focused on transforming a severe environmental and economic threat into a sustainable opportunity for the local community, with a strategy built on placing the affected community at the very centre of its management efforts.
‘’Our project has demonstrated that supplementing camel diets with the invasive cactus-based feed can double milk production, directly improving food security and household income. Furthermore, we developed cactus-based feed pellets that significantly increase weight gain in goats during a 3-month trial period,’’ said Owino.
The cactus-based pellets help minimise livestock losses, especially during prolonged periods of drought.
“We are seeing animals gain weight even during dry periods when pasture is scarce. These interventions have the potential to stabilize livelihoods that depend almost entirely on livestock.”
‘’We also successfully introduced cactus-based biodigesters to 30 beneficiary households. This not only provides a source of clean energy for households but also advances environmental conservation by utilising the invasive biomass. Our kitchen garden, which utilises effluent from the biodigester, provides leafy vegetables to women and children vulnerable to malnutrition in the region,’’ he explained.
The approach, Owino said, closes the sustainability loop by supporting household food production while minimising waste.
Community members from Laikipia lauded the project, highlighting how it has helped them improve their livelihoods.
“Cooking with biogas has reduced smoke in the home and eliminated the constant pressure of sourcing fuel, improving household wellbeing and freeing up time for income-generating activities. With energy available at home and feed accessible locally, families are spending less time coping with scarcity and more time improving their livelihoods,’’ said Petroline Masaine, a project beneficiary.
Helping Mitigate Conflict in the Region
Being a pastoralist dominated area, there is high demand for grazing land and the drought only serves to make the situation worse as neighbouring communities and private land owners tend to get into conflicts due to trespassing.
A lot of people native to the region feel they have been marginalised in their own land, as private investors and companies have come and bought huge chunks of their grazing lands.
Armed locals have been known to forcefully graze their livestock on private ranches and conservancies, especially during the dry season when food is scarce.
Politicians have also been known to take advantage of this volatile situation with talks of them providing the locals with crude weapons and illegal firearms. This situation only led to escalating the land issues plaguing the region and even causing deaths in some cases.
The project therefore mitigates conflict in the region as the people gradually appreciate and adopt this new way of supplementing food for their livestock rather than fighting for grazing land.
“By having an ever-sufficient amount of forage for the pastoralists, they will have no reason to move their animals into the nearby ranches and conservancies. There will be no more need for unnecessary conflict, as food will always be available for their animals,” said Owino.
Sustainability and Environmental Concern
While the immediate goal of the project is to contribute to the eradication of the invasive Opuntia stricta, its vision extends beyond removal, including a parallel initiative: the introduction and cultivation of spineless forage cactus.
“By establishing community nurseries and promoting spineless varieties as a safe, drought-resilient feed source, we aim to reduce reliance on the dangerous invasive species and provide a sustainable, safe, and productive feed resource for the future,” Owino concluded.
The University of Florida supports JKUAT with technical know-how due to their vast experience with forage cactus.
‘’This project has demonstrated that Opuntia stricta can be processed into livestock feed pellets that support significant weight gain in farm animals, offering a drought-resilient alternative where pasture is increasingly unreliable. For families whose wealth and food security are tied almost entirely to their herds, the pellets have provided a critical buffer against climate shocks,’’ stated José Dubeux, UF/IFAS.
IPS UN Bureau Report
© Inter Press Service (20260709105003) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service
