NASA satellites are being used to help Kenyan farmers insure their livestock against drought. The project is being piloted with thousands of herders in Northern Kenya, but could be rolled out to other arid areas of Africa. Traditionally it’s been hard for them to get insurance, because of the logistical difficulties of sending an insurance agent to each remote farmer to verify every loss. Now satellite images are being used, not to count animals, but to assess how dry the ground is, and therefore how likely animals are do die in a drought.

Andrew Mude from the International Livestock Research Institute is running the project. He joined the programme from the BBC’s studios in Nairobi.

Listen  now (from 21.45 minutes) … (BBC World service)