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The Kenyan government and development partners in Kenya's North Eastern Province have been sponsoring farming education to reduce food-aid dependency and promote self-reliance through agriculture.

"After the recent drought disasters where most pastoralists lost their livestock, it is evident that pastoralism is threatened and farming, especially irrigation-spurred agriculture, can significantly reduce food insecurity and [reliance on] food and cash hand-outs," Kenya Red Cross Society Secretary General Abbas Guled told reporters last month, after the organisation donated 24 pumping machines to farming groups in Garissa.

Guled urged local communities to become self-sufficient and learn to use available resources efficiently. "To rely on food aid is to be destitute. Food aid is supposed to be a short-term measure, but it has become a permanent feature in most communities," he said.

Minister of State for the Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands Mohamed Ibrahim Elmi told Sabahi that the initiatives aim to provide needed training and equipment to farmers to encourage increased production, as well as introduce herders who have lost their animals to farming.

"Many pastoralists are now leading a sedentary lifestyle that they are not used to after losing their livestock, and at the moment, these are the people we are targeting," Elmi said. "Those who have tried their hands at farming normally do very well."

He said herders should keep a manageable number of livestock to prevent mass deaths of animals during drought, as keeping a large number of livestock healthy is outdated due to unpredictable weather patterns.

Former pastoralists told Sabahi the government-sponsored agricultural initiative has improved their lives.

Ibrahim Hassan Omar, 52, a resident of Garissa, said he used to queue for food hand-outs at local food distribution centres when he lost 200 livestock in 2006.

"I was receiving too little food, and I had a large family to feed. When I heard that the government was giving out water pumps last year for people to try farming, I decided to try it," he said.

"Today, I have surplus of food, and I sell [some of it] to sustain my family. My children, who had dropped out of school, have resumed classes and one of them will start university soon."

Adan Mahamud Abdi, 56, who farms along the Daua River, said that he had spent most of his life crisscrossing the vast Mandera District and occasionally into Somalia and Ethiopia in search of water and pasture for his livestock.

Abdi said that he lost the remainder of his 10 cattle in June 2011 when a severe drought devastated much of region.

"I ventured into farming when Rural Agency for Community Development and Assistance (RACIDA) introduced an irrigation scheme in Mandera. RACIDA provided water pumping machines and some [farming] skills. I am reaping the benefits because my crops are doing well," he said, pointing at his lush Shantoley farm.

"I wasted so much time rearing livestock, and yet at the end of it, drought came and killed all my animals. I did not know I could do much through farming. I am not going back to rearing livestock," he said.

RACIDA Programme Co-ordinator Mahamud Isack Dualle told Sabahi that Abdi is one of 200 people targeted in October for the irrigation scheme. He said the programme was a partnership between RACIDA and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA).

Dualle said that before NCA came on board, RACIDA partnered with other international organisations, such as the World Bank and the Kenya Red Cross Society.

Mandera Central Parliamentarian Abdikadir Hussein Mohamed said he has been lobbying for bank loans to support similar farming ventures, as pastoralism is no longer viable.

"We are supporting cottage industries in Mandera," Mohamed told Sabahi. "We are sinking more boreholes and harvesting rainwater in huge reservoirs. The water can also be used for irrigation in areas where the seasonal Daua River does not flow."

Ahmed Sharif Bule, an official with the Ministry of Livestock Development, says that despite the challenges, the projects are slowly showing results.

"For the last three years, despite the lack of rain, most of the food sold in [local] markets has been produced by former pastoralists," he said.

Last year, for the first time, the region produced more produce than was consumed locally and was able to supply Nairobi markets, Bule said. "It means that the initiatives are bearing fruit," he said.