MAVUNO
Livestock, Fodder & Water
Understand grazing areas, rainfall, vegetation, water access and market connections.
Livestock, fodder and water evidence for Kenyan rangelands
Livestock and fodder finance in Kenya's rangelands is exposed to conditions that change every season: pasture, rainfall and drought across huge areas with little recorded data. Those areas are too large to survey often. Satellites cover them continuously.
Mavuno shows how much vegetation there is, how much rain has fallen compared with a normal year, and how the area has performed across several seasons. The pack states what we saw, on which dates, and how confident we are.
That gives lenders, insurers, county programmes and pastoral projects a dated starting picture of rangeland conditions. It is context for a decision, not a drought forecast, a stocking recommendation or an insurance trigger.
Livestock, fodder and water businesses live or die by the seasons.
Anyone financing them needs an honest way to describe that variation, without pretending a satellite can count animals or judge their condition.
Questions we hear
- How much grazing and fodder is there around this area?
- How much has rainfall varied over recent seasons?
- Where do conditions get hardest in the dry season?
- Where are water points, grazing areas and market routes in relation to each other?
- What should be confirmed locally before deciding?
What we can show
What Mavuno adds to the question.
Drawn from free public satellite and rainfall information, plus whatever the business chooses to share with us.
- What is growing
- How much vegetation there is across grazing and fodder areas.
- How rainfall varies
- How rainfall in recent seasons compares with a normal year.
- Dry-season conditions
- Where conditions get hardest in the dry season.
- Water, grazing and markets
- Where water points, grazing areas and markets sit in relation to each other.
How it runs
From your question to your answer.
- 01Ask: agree the livestock, fodder or water question.
- 02Locate: set the grazing area, fodder block or catchment.
- 03Understand: look across several seasons of vegetation and rainfall.
- 04Explain: describe how conditions have varied, and what that cannot tell you.
- 05Decide: you receive the pack, with the local checks that should follow.
Example
What a pack might answer.
Business question
How has vegetation and rainfall context varied across this rangeland over recent seasons?
Declared grazing and fodder area, northern Kenya
What the pack would show
- Season-by-season vegetation index profile
- Rainfall accumulation relative to the recent multi-year pattern
- Spatial distribution of low-index areas in the dry season
What you gain from it
A traceable description of seasonal variability that a lender or insurer can place beside the business case, without treating it as a measure of herd condition.
Limitations
- This example is illustrative. It is not an assessment of any real business.
- Satellite information shows physical conditions, not commercial facts.
- Every real pack states its own limits, for its own place.
Common questions
Asked before a pilot.
- Can this predict drought?
- No. We report the rainfall and vegetation we have observed, compared with past years for the same area. Forecasting is a different discipline with its own models and uncertainties.
- Is this suitable for index insurance?
- The information can inform a risk review, but Mavuno does not design, price or trigger insurance products. Any such use would need its own actuarial work.
- How large an area can be covered?
- Very large areas are workable, because the satellite records cover the whole continent. The real limit is agreeing an area specific enough for the decision at hand.
Where it is used
Who uses this evidence.
- Livestock and fodder lending reviews
- Index and area-based insurance design inputs
- Drought-response and resilience programme monitoring
Other sectors
Have a business question that depends on place?
Tell us the question and the place it concerns. We will say whether Mavuno can add useful evidence to it, and what it would not settle.