Satellites may make it easier for nomadic herders in Senegal to survive the lean season.
Making a living in the Ferlo region of northern Senegal is a constant challenge. With a long dry season and little land suitable for crops, many of its people migrate with seasonal rains as they tend small herds of cattle, donkeys, and goats.
Keeping livestock healthy during the long “lean season”—which typically reaches its height between May and July when rains slow and most watering holes dry up—is particularly difficult. Many herding families move frequently, often every few weeks, to find water.
“Inadequate rainfall puts nomadic herders in a particularly perilous position,” said Rebekke Muench, a scientist at the NASA SERVIR Science Coordination Office. SERVIR is a joint initiative of NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
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Image via NASA Earth Observatory
