NDA – Use of English (Comprehension 2 ) – 2002

The Kenyan Desert Plains II

Here on the edges of Kenya’s Vast semi-desert plains are some very different people with an unimaginably tough life-style: the pastoralists. For these tribal people-massai, Borana, Rut-kana-nomadic herding is a way of eking a livelihood from very poor land. But under pressure from the new influx of farmers, they are finding that their traditional ways of providing food are no longer sufficient. Some have had to give up their nomadic life and become farmers on the marginal land along with Shamba farmers, squeezed down from the highlands. This marginal land is now the-end of the line for perhaps a million or more Kenyans. Mostly lacking the tools or the experience to farm the terrain, they have little food and little hope.

There are about 30 million Africans caught in similar traps elsewhere. They face and starvation and famine because the land desertified, eroded and useless, won’t feed them.

In a sense the problem exists because of the short-sightedness African governments. They want industrial development and the trappings of growth and wealth, but they’ve all overlooked the golden rule, development can only take place on a foundation of agricultural surplus. You must feed your people first.