The village of Terrat, a settlement of around 14,000 people in the semiarid grassland and acacia forests of the Maasai Steppe, is one of many across northern Tanzania that has suffered increasingly frequent and severe drought. Terrat’s residents, farmers and herders alike, are adapting to the challenges of their changing climate with help from an organization supporting tree planting alongside new farming techniques and economic opportunities. Drought isn’t new to Simanjiro district, where Terrat is found, but beginning in the early 2000s, this part of Tanzania witnessed a 20-year spell of poor rainfall. This posed a significant challenge for the roughly 80% of Terrat’s population who are pastoralists, reliant entirely on rain for pasture for their animals. Kone Medukenya, the Terrat village chair, told Mongabay that with limited pasture and many water sources drying up, cattle weakened and many animals died, and the land could only support goats. This reduced the pastoralists’ primary source of income. Livestock herders were forced to travel farther in search of grazing land, often into neighboring territories, triggering disputes with those communities over dwindling resources. The drought also drove the price of food up across this part of Tanzania. The price of a 100-kilogram (220-pound) sack of maize rose from $11 in 2004 to $66 in 2008 and continued to increase for nearly 10 years. In Simanjiro, residents said they had to travel more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the Arusha region to buy reasonably priced leafy green vegetables. “We witnessed poor living conditions…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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