Introducing Jameel Observatory student – John Mutua

As part of its matchmaking approach that devises data-driven early action food security solutions for dry areas, the Jameel Observatory supports researchers looking for answers that pastoral communities can use to overcome climate changes. Observatory Students combine their academic studies with field work to produce development-oriented resources with practical applications.

In February 2026, John Mutua completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences. His thesis was on ‘Quantifying livestock diets in Tropical regions: Insights from Kenya.’

He previously worked as a geospatial analyst at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in Kenya where he worked on various research topics including climate risk assessment, land degradation assessment, and and land cover mapping.

There, he developed a wide range of forage suitability maps and contributed to a new method to map and assess heat stress in pigs. The results have been used to inform climate change policy for pigs in Uganda. Most importantly, the method has been further refined and applied in West Africa and across East Africa to highlight heat stress ‘hot spots’ for six livestock species.

Research focus

John’s research focused on how spatial analysis and environmental modelling can contribute to decision making in agri-food systems – specifically livestock nutrition and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction assessment. Supported by the United Kingdom’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as well as Edinburgh University and the Jameel Observatory, he combined earth observation (EO) data with local ground truth data to better estimate the composition of livestock feeds in East Africa.

Supervised by Gary Watmough, John’s research demonstrated that EO data can meaningfully enhance enteric methane assessments in data scarce regions. While EO products do not replace farm level data, they provide a scalable means to capture broad spatial and temporal patterns in livestock diets. The findings support more targeted mitigation efforts, improved life cycle assessments, and better informed livestock sector policies.