BY MULATU BELACHEW
According to estimates, pastoralists consist 12 to 14 percent of Ethiopia’s population and cover 60 percent of the country’s land. Hence, both in terms of population, land coverage and other resources, pastoralists and pastoral areas have a significant share in Ethiopia’s economic activities.
Pastoralism is a system categorized by three pillars, namely human, livestock and natural resources. Livestock has a central place in the lives of pastoralists. In addition, all the pillars of pastoral lives are interrelated. Having this in mind, Ethiopia has revised its policy and strategy to deal with pastoral areas.
With the absence of one pillar, it would be difficult to improve the lives of pastoralists and ensure sustainable development. That is the major reason why most policy approaches fail to address the concerns of pastoralists, said Honey Hassen, agricultural economics consultant during the recently held ‘Addis Weg’ round table discussion at the Office of the Prime Minister.
Pastoralists move from place to place deliberately and strategically as their lives are strongly attached to seasonal conditions. “But many considered their movement as unplanned and disorganized which is very wrong and misrepresentation,” she added.
In Ethiopia, pastoral practices are very much diversified. “It would be impossible to plan to settle pastoralists in one place without coming up with some kind of strategy to meet their and their livestock’s demand,” she said. “Hence, in its quest to ensuring sustainable development, the government has to give due attention to the issues of pastoralists and lowland communities in its policy design.”
The government has to adopt inclusive policy options that ensure the participation of lowlanders and pastoralists. “Otherwise, it is doomed to repeat old failures,” she said adding “in doing so, it has to also take specific contexts into consideration as pastoral communities have diverse living conditions, structures and interests, and hence development plans and policy should consider these existing conditions to be effective sustainably.”
As to Honey, when there are investment activities taking place in the area where they are located, it must first and for most make sure that it is beneficial to the pastoralists, besides contributing to the overall national development.
Livelihood and community mobility are at the core of factors shaping pastoralists policy and strategy that would foster holistic sustainable development. “It is only this way that we would be able to make sure that their rights are taken into consideration.”
The pastoralists have diversified knowledge and resources that have been traditionally capitalized on. Hence, the government has to be able to closely work with them to develop these resources scientifically, as to the consultant. Due to the country’s inability to create market linkage in the formal line, resources in pastoral areas have been exported to other countries without bringing meaningful change in the lives of pastoralists and supporting the national economy. “It is a collective responsibility of all in solving these challenges and putting in place a system that ensures the benefits of pastoralists,” she emphasized.
Irrigation is one of the development arenas to change the lives of pastoralists. Irrigation requires two basic resources that are land and water. Having 123 billion cubic meter surface land water and 40,000 billion cubic meter underground water, Ethiopia has not properly exploited its irrigation potential. So far, the total irrigated land coverage is 7.5 million hectares. Of this, some five million hectares of land is found in lowland and pastoralist areas. Even, this is still way below the potential, said Wondimu Takele, Water and Irrigation Commission Commissioner.
“We have now identified 15 irrigation corridors, of these, 10 corridors are found in the lowland and pastoralists’ area. This opens the possibilities to irrigate the area without difficulty,” he said.
“If we work hard and adopt labor-intensive technologies, and correct policy and implementation gaps, there is a lot of room for improvement in the irrigation sector,” he said.
Lowland and pastoralist communities contribute 12 to 15 percent for the country’s GDP growth. Hence, they have been playing a significant role in the growth of the country. Over 95 percent of livestock and livestock product export are sourced from the pastoralist communities, he said.
In this fiscal year, the government has planned to irrigate some 65 thousand hectares of land he said adding some 17 thousand hectares are already under development. A suitable policy has also been formulated to improve drainage design issues in both small and large scale drainage system/irrigation projects.
Citing the challenges and positive aspects of pastoralist policies over the past decade, Irrigation and Basin Development Expert Abdurahman Eid Tahir said the systematic resettlement of pastoralists is believed to simplify administration issues and reduce security concerns, and hence improve their livelihood.
The previous policy organization had gaps in addressing the seasonal needs of pastoralists in a sustainable manner. But it has made a significant contribution to improving the accessibility of veterinary vaccine and expanding alternative education for the pastoralist communities, he said.
The ministry has adopted policies that integrate and combine as well as safeguard social, economic and sustainable directions which profoundly boost holistic sustainable development. Pastoralists have been moving from one place to the other in search of resources. “We are focusing to mobilize the resource and save costs, energy and time that pastoralists invest in search of livelihood options,” he said.
The Ministry of Agriculture stated that Ethiopia has been undertaken policy revision regarding lowland and pastoralist communities. The revised policy would profoundly facilitate inclusive development and enhance the pastoralists’ livelihood sustainably.
Crop Development State Minister with the ministry, Mandefro Nigussie (Ph.D.) said that the revised policy has opened multiple means of financial accessibility for actors of a number of sectors, which have the right to form Agriculture Bank that provides investors with credit.
He further said that it is crucial to implement sustainable development options in a way that preserves the pastoral lifestyle of the communities and takes climate change into account. Cotton and wheat crops, for example, have been successfully harvested three times a year in pastoral areas.
The discussion explored the existing livelihood of pastoralists, the benefits and challenges of the policies implemented over the years, and the ongoing efforts to ensure sustainable development and the benefits of the community.
As to Mandefro, Minister of Agriculture has been revising urban and rural agricultural policies and strategies in a manner that boost sustainable development socially, economically and environmentally.
“But now, we’re focusing on mobilizing the resource in a bid to save costs, energy and time that pastoralists have paid for through going to resource area. Hence, it requires scientific knowledge to invest and utilize the abundant resources in the area to change the communities’ lives as well as ensure sustainable national development.
Representative of the Ministry of Peace said that the recent Pastoralists Policy and Strategy is well revised through the participation of targeted communities and concerned bodies in its designing stages. “We have a huge resource, but it is not well utilized due to poor execution potential and limited infrastructure and financial constraints,” he added.
The Ethiopian Herald 22 January 2021
