By Christine Wanjiku
For Abdi Hassan, a dairy farmer in northern Kenya, rising temperatures have steadily eroded his livestock productivity.
Over the last three years, prolonged heatwaves have reduced milk yields, weakened animal health, and increased the cost of keeping his cattle alive.
“When it is very hot, milk production drops sharply,” Hassan says. “The cows eat less, fall sick more often, and sometimes fail to conceive.”
The pressure has grown so intense that he’s questioning his future in dairy farming altogether. Faced with declining yields and rising costs, he has considered selling part of his herd and seeking casual work in nearby towns to support his family.
Hassan is not alone. His experience reflects a growing crisis facing dairy farmers across Africa’s arid and semi-arid regions, where climate change is pushing livestock beyond their physiological limits.
Heat stress is one of the biggest hidden costs in dairy production. When temperatures rise beyond an animal’s comfort threshold, energy that would normally go into milk production is diverted to cooling the body. For farmers like Hassan, this means lower yields, higher veterinary expenses, and unstable income.
As temperatures rise and heat waves become more frequent, scientists warn that traditional breeding and management practices alone may no longer be sufficient to protect livestock-based livelihoods.
“Farming used to be reliable, but now every hot season feels like a gamble. If this continues, I don’t know how long I can keep the cows,” Hassan says.
It is this growing vulnerability that scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) are seeking to address through a genome-editing research project focused on heat-tolerant cattle traits such as the SLICK gene.
The project is still at the research and assessment stage and aims to determine whether introducing such traits can help cattle maintain milk production, improve resilience, and ultimately support farmer livelihoods under climate stress.
“The SLICK project, which began in 2021, has completed several mating rounds to produce heterozygous animals for performance testing, aimed at assessing whether the heat-tolerant trait can sustain milk production, strengthen livestock resilience, and support farmer livelihoods under climate change,” says Nelson Kipchirchir, a research coordinator and veterinarian at ILRI Kapiti Research Station.
If the trials yield positive results, farmers like Hassan could see a profound shift in how they manage rising temperatures. Heat-tolerant cattle could help stabilize milk production during hot seasons, reduce heat-related stress and disease, and lower production costs, particularly veterinary expenses.
Over time, these gains could translate into more reliable incomes, improved household nutrition, and greater food security for farming families already struggling with climate pressures.
“These are the things farmers need,” Hassan says. “Not bigger animals, but animals that survive and produce in this heat.”
Genome editing is a modern biotechnology that allows scientists to make precise changes to an organism’s DNA. Using tools like CRISPR-Cas9, researchers can add, remove, or modify specific genes, enabling applications in medicine, agriculture, and livestock.
Unlike traditional methods, this modern biotechnology is highly targeted and efficient, offering solutions such as disease-resistant crops, healthier animals, and potential treatments for genetic disorders.
ILRI researchers emphasize that the project is not about rushing technology to farmers, but about evidence-based assessment. The trials are examining whether heat-tolerant traits such as SLICK can deliver real productivity gains without unintended effects on animal health or performance.
In Kenya, such innovations are reviewed under a case-by-case biosafety framework, ensuring that any future deployment is safe, ethical, and aligned with national agricultural goals.
According to Josphat Muchiri, Acting Director, Biosafety Research and Compliance at National Biosafety Authority (NBA), genome editing fits well within Kenya’s broader goals for food security and climate resilience by complementing existing agricultural strategies with a more precise and efficient breeding tool.
It enables the development of crop varieties and animal breeds that are better able to withstand biotic stresses such as pests and diseases, as well as abiotic stresses like drought, heat, and poor soil challenges that are increasingly intensified by climate change.
“Genome editing allows for targeted and faster improvement of locally adapted crops and livestock; it can shorten breeding timelines while preserving desirable traits already valued by farmers,” says Muchiri.
In the broader context, therefore, genome editing supports sustainable agricultural productivity, reduces yield losses, and enhances resilience in smallholder farming systems. By improving farm-level productivity and stability, the technology has strong potential to contribute to national food security, climate adaptation, and economic growth, aligning with Kenya’s development and agricultural transformation agenda.
According to him, by targeting specific genes without altering the overall genetic makeup of locally adapted breeds, genome editing can improve traits that are already well-suited to local environments, supporting sustainable livestock production.
Concerns about the loss of indigenous breeds and genetic diversity remain central to the conversation. Muchiri says safeguards are firmly in place. The government, alongside international partners, has established a robust gene bank to conserve indigenous livestock.
The Kenya Animal Genetic Resources Centre (KAGRC), for example, is a government agency and is required to establish a national livestock resources gene bank for conservation of livestock tissues, DNA, semen, and embryos of all livestock and emerging livestock species for posterity in Kenya. This ensures that even as improved genetics are introduced, indigenous breeds remain protected.
Kenya’s efforts are also part of a wider continental shift. According to Dr. Margaret Karembu, Director of the ISAAA AfriCenter, seven African countries have now initiated regulatory processes for genome-edited livestock, with Kenya becoming the first to issue a regulatory determination for a genome-edited animal.
She notes that many regulators are moving toward product-based oversight, where regulation depends on the risk profile of the final product rather than the breeding technique used.
“This approach is more efficient because it focuses regulatory attention where it truly matters on potential new risks,” she says.
At the continental level, the African Union Policy Framework for Genome Editing Applications is helping harmonize policies across Africa’s 55 member states. By aligning regulation, investment, and innovation, the framework is expected to reduce duplication, improve predictability, and ease regional trade in livestock products.
