BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
The livestock sector is an important sector which supports both the agricultural income and the Gross Domestic Product of the country. It contributes about 13% of the annual export earnings. However, as Ethiopia has un-delimited long distance boarder with the neighboring countries, the large amount of unregistered cross border trade negatively affects the nation’s income.
Birhanu Gebremedihin, a livestock resource researcher who has been working in various international organizations for the last three decades said that despite the nation has huge resources, the predominant traditional way of cattle rearing practice has restricted the sector’s growth making it subsistence. At the household level, livestock plays crucial economic role especially in the lives of pastorals, semi pastorals and supports small holder farmers in the high land parts of the country.
As the community is defined in a low income brackets, the sector serves people to cope sever situation induced by climate change and global warming. Traditionally, pastoralists in the peripheral areas are not reached by modern finance system. Hence, animals are used as accumulated capital and movable property. In time of hardships, they are exchanged into money with less optimal price to purchase other vital goods which support their livelihood.
Birhanu further said that in the small holder mixed farming system, animals provide nutritious food, emergency income that enables to purchase farm inputs and gasoline for cooking. Studies indicate that the rise of income in urban areas due to economic growth necessitates demand for nutritious food derived from livestock such as meat and milk and this implies that the sector has a potential to support the nation’s economy as well as cattle raisers.
The government is convinced that the livestock sub sector plays critical role in the ongoing efforts in poverty alleviation and support the economy. Often its policy in this regard is harmonious through various dimensions in terms of budget regulation and institutional arrangement and marketing. Years back, the pastoral affairs was given very poor attention in terms of institutional structure that resulted in the sector’s backwardness. A decade ago, however, regions such as Beneshangul Gumuz, the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, Oromia, Afar and Somali that have excessive amount of pastoral population established Bureau at the regional level which supports the sector.
The support provided by the government to the sector among others includes improving veterinary services, promoting credit system, market facilities and strengthening the availability of forage. The establishment of the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency and its engagement in advising and providing technical support is helpful to modernize the sector.
In line with this, the establishment of the National Animal Health Diagnostic and Investigation Center with various projects plays pivotal role in value addition. However, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, there are various hurdles which could be mentioned as a bottleneck to the sector. Both production and marketing still suffer from lack of efficiency and effectiveness.
The average productivity of livestock in the country is among the lowest in the world. The ratio of the number of livestock to the herders is dwindling from time to time due to the scarcity of forage and the prevalent of endemic diseases. The mortality rate of the animals is also the highest in the continent. Various sources agree that Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa. But still the number of animals in the pastoral areas and that of in the highlands are not clearly identified. Some rough estimation indicates that the pastoral areas account for about 20% of cattle, 40% of sheep, and 40% goats in the country.
Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa, with 65 million cattle, 40 million sheep, 51 million goats, 8 million camels and 49 million chickens in 2020 (Central Statistics Agency, CSA, 2020a) It is understood that the livestock subsector’s character and value depends on the herder’s culture, agro-ecological and regional variation. Particularly, the sector’s role in the rural economic dynamics much differs in pastoral system than in the sedentary farming of the highland parts.
This situation also indicates effects of the livestock’s mortality on its profitability and future prospects as well. According to Asfaw Negassa, livestock resource private researcher, at the national level, a large share about 63% of the nation’s cattle is in the three to ten year age group and out of this, 36% are females and this categorization reflects that the cattle are more productive and valuable in the age group. He also said that further disaggregation by age would help to better understanding of the market aspect of the sector and the purpose of keeping the animals.
The usage of cattle also differs from place to place. For example, households in the central high land parts use livestock for plowing and transportation but in the pastoral areas, animals do not give similar service. It is proved that the sedentary farming practiced in the high land areas contributes up to 45% of the GDP and behind this contribution, there is the oxen labor but it is still get insignificant attention.
Unlike the modern farming, agriculture seldom uses tractors and machinery. It is human and animal labors which play crucial role in production activities. The other point that should be mentioned with regard to geographic variation and its impact on livestock is that, the share of female cattle to the economic contribution in the pastoral areas is much higher than the sedentary farming areas; 80% in Afar, 70% in Gambella and 68% in Somali regions because they are mainly the source of milk.
As it is known though Ethiopia is rich in livestock resources, the sector’s contribution to the economy is negligible due to various reasons. The rampant illegal activities conducted by cross boarder livestock traders to the neighboring countries made the nation to lose huge amount of hard currency. Amazingly, the illegal traders utilize the hard currency they earn from the illegal business to import weapons used to prop up conflicts flared here and there. The other thing critically harms the sector’s development is that the expansion of farm lands by aggrandizing grazing lands both in the low and high land areas of the country.
It is understood that the high land part of the country is the most populous area. In the rural part, girls in their teen age forcefully engaged in marriage and give birth on average five. As a result, the population growth is alarmingly increasing. The youth when they become above the age of 18, parents offer portion of their lands to them which again poses land scarcity and such situation force them to look additional land including slop areas and grazing lands.
The other factor which critically troubled the sector is drought. Drought has been a recurrent problem and currently it occurs in every two years. The livestock owners’ capacity to withstand the drought and its consequences is very weak. Even though the meteorology institute avails information with regard to bad weather condition, the institution’s capacity at the woreda level in taking a preemptive measure to overcome the problem is very poor. As a result, millions of cattle lose their life. The recent phenomena occurred in the Borena zone of Oromia, and some parts of Somali and South regions can be mentioned as the case in point.
The absence of viable supply chain and market has also critically hampered the development of the sector. Though Ethiopia is known by its abundant livestock resource, the per capita consumption of milk and meat is below the average even in the Sub Saharan African standard. Therefore, to utilize the resource at the maximum level and to enhance the sector’s contribution to the economy, much attention should be paid by all stakeholders, it was underscored.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 28 APRIL 2023
