Happy strategies game Dryland landscape
Rainfall 700 mm/yr High average temperature Evapotranspiration (PET): 1600 Poorly distributed and with high inter seasonal variability
Elevation
Slope Gently sloping, some areas totally flat More steep areas around the banks of seasonal streams
Soils
Land use
Water access and market access Water scarcity Few villages have piped system Piped water too expensive for many Many people rely on water fetched from holes in dry riverbeds Women have to walk many hours to get water for household consumption
Socio-economic setting Mostly agro-pastoralist communities except than in bigger villages Man move with the animals to summer pastures Increasing population (also livestock) Women and elders stay home the whole year Crops grown are mainly Sorghum, many other crops could be grown if water is available. Chat is being grown if water is available Few Jatropha (for diesel production) commercial plantations
Landscape challenges (livestock) Prosopis and Opuntia are invading the natural pastures Prosopis beans are eaten by goats and spread with their dung The area around the few water points for livestock are highly degraded because high livestock density Overgrazing soil erosion Low livestock productivity because of diseases, low quality of feed and not enough water
Landscape challenges (agriculture) Short growing season for low water availability Low rains and High evapotranspiration Low use of organic and artificial fertilizers Growing crops must be guarded from livestock Decreasing number of trees for shade, timber and fuel
Social setting Agro-pastoralist and pastoralist communities Tension between groups for pasture lands and livestock water sources Government push for settlement of pastoralists Some fields are surrounded by barbed wire that impede the traditional practice of free movement of livestock Extension service focused on agriculture and not much on pastoralist way of life People not used to invest many resources and time in improving land because of pastoralist attitude