Ethiopia: Pastoralism against the odds
2 September, 2010 | IRIN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JIJIGA, 2 September 2010 (IRIN) - Pastoralists’ disproportionate
contribution to Ethiopia’s economy is belied by their marginalized status
and by policy assumptions that they would be better off farming. But
those who raise livestock tend to make the most of marginal land,
according to experts, and are often proficient at adapting to changing
circumstances.
“People think that pastoralist production systems are just static and
backward but this isn't true.
“Besides women changing roles, pastoralists are using cell phones and
participating in trade and development in their areas. This is key to shift
policymakers’ thinking of the pastoral system,” Charles Hopkins, CARE’
s pastoral programme manager, told IRIN.
Although pastoralism has been recognized as a way of life in the
Ethiopian constitution, the long-term focus is on sedenterization.
“Pastoralists are often seen as people who should be told what to do,”
said Hopkins.
livelihoods for no one.
“Pastoral lands are also seen as idle and given to agriculturalists. With
the growing food demand, pastoralists will always have this problem,”
added Hopkins. Ethiopia has one of the highest populations in Africa and
most of its citizens rely on agriculture.
Grazing land is reducing due to the conversion of land for farming, an
elder in the Jerar area north of Jijiga in Somali Region, told IRIN.
“Before some of us were pastoralists but now most of our livelihood
depends on farming,” he said.
“But farming is like a game of chance, you harvest or you don’t. In the
pastoral system, you move with the drought. At the farm you may
work so hard for nothing.”
Insecurity is affecting livestock movement too - there has been internal
pressure in Somali Region from armed groups seeking the region’s
secession.
Informal trade
Despite the odds, pastoralists, estimated at about 15 percent of the
population, are contributing about 40 percent of the agricultural gross
domestic product in Ethiopia, according to a 2009 Humanitarian Policy
Group paper.
Informal systems, heavily dependent on communal ties, are especially
important in the dynamic unofficial cross-border trade in live animals in
exchange for consumer goods across porous borders. The government
describes the trade as contraband.
“If a trader has the animals, we disperse them in different ways to
Somaliland as we speak the same language,” said a livestock broker at
the Jijiga Livestock Market. Nearly all animals crossing into Somalia are
re-exported to Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Gulf states.
“There are few legal livestock exporters as we are limited by the tax
system,” he added.
Official marketing systems are burdened by regulations and taxes.
“Livestock traders want to formalize the trade but there are bureaucracy
problems such as the requirement to open accounts, and the need for
foreign exchange yet Somalia lacks a functioning central bank,” said
Mohamed Abdinoor, the US Agency for International Development
(USAID) pastoral and livestock programmes technical adviser.
The peripheral location of most pastoral regions leads to their being
squeezed out of domestic livestock markets. Cattle and sheep sold in
Addis Ababa, for instance, predominantly come from the highland
areas, exacerbating informal trade in a country said to have the largest
livestock population in Africa.
According to Abdinoor, a clear policy on pastoral lands and reliable
meat and live animal markets will help.
USAID’s Pastoralist Livelihood Initiative programme is providing
development and emergency support through pasture rehabilitation,
water harvesting, targeted livestock feeding and slaughter destocking. It
is also providing linkages with livestock pharmacies and animal health
workers.
Livestock serve as critical buffers against falling into persistent poverty,
not only in pastoralist areas.
“We depend on God. We also support each other in times of hardship
by loaning animals,” livestock trader Abdikarim told IRIN.
According to a UK-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
report, effective engagement with pastoralists requires an understanding
of these supportive connections. “This… is critical for pastoral systems
where social, political, economic and environmental insecurity is
catapulting people from managing well to merely surviving, often
without warning.”
Women’s role
Pastoral women are increasingly involved in income generating
activities, too, ranging from goats and sheep brokerage to buying and
reselling bulls and cereals.
The milk trade largely depends on women.
Every morning, women in their brightly coloured shawls unload
donkeys and camels laden with yellow milk jerricans at collection points
strategically along the highway to Jijiga town.
“We all know each other. There is no risk of the middle man running
off with our money,” said one of the women as she tied her jerricans to
the waiting truck. Unique drawings help identify her jerricans.
“The truck driver takes the milk to a broker in Jijiga for sale. He comes
back with other foodstuffs and commodities that we need.”
Payment is made once every five days.
“Sometimes the milk goes bad and has to be returned. We warn the
women about this,” said truck driver Geshe Alemanyuhu.
There is a lack of milk preservation facilities but the women use smoke
from the burning of some herbs to treat the milking trough, `dhiil’. This,
they say, keeps milk fresher for longer.
Education
Increasingly, pastoralists are also embracing education. “In the past, the
brightest boy in the family would be kept back from formal education
and educated through the clan. Increasing livelihood insecurity and
reduced herd size for some is changing that. Now the brightest boys, if
it can be afforded, are being selected to send to school,” the IDS report
said.
But barriers remain such as long trekking distances to school. The
harsh climate in Afar, for instance, also means that fewer children there
attend and stay in school, as families depend on mobility to survive.
CARE’s Hopkins said: “For the pastoralist, education is being seen as an
adaptive mechanism.”
Courtesy
2 September, 2010 | IRIN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JIJIGA, 2 September 2010 (IRIN) - Pastoralists’ disproportionate
contribution to Ethiopia’s economy is belied by their marginalized status
and by policy assumptions that they would be better off farming. But
those who raise livestock tend to make the most of marginal land,
according to experts, and are often proficient at adapting to changing
circumstances.
“People think that pastoralist production systems are just static and
backward but this isn't true.
“Besides women changing roles, pastoralists are using cell phones and
participating in trade and development in their areas. This is key to shift
policymakers’ thinking of the pastoral system,” Charles Hopkins, CARE’
s pastoral programme manager, told IRIN.
Although pastoralism has been recognized as a way of life in the
Ethiopian constitution, the long-term focus is on sedenterization.
“Pastoralists are often seen as people who should be told what to do,”
said Hopkins.
- Pastoralists are often
referred to as `Zelan’,
a derogatory Amharic
term meaning aimless
wanderers. Yet
mobility is a necessary
response to climate
and vegetation
variations, according
to experts, who regard
pastoralism as a
sophisticated land-use
system that allows
livelihoods for no one.
“Pastoral lands are also seen as idle and given to agriculturalists. With
the growing food demand, pastoralists will always have this problem,”
added Hopkins. Ethiopia has one of the highest populations in Africa and
most of its citizens rely on agriculture.
Grazing land is reducing due to the conversion of land for farming, an
elder in the Jerar area north of Jijiga in Somali Region, told IRIN.
“Before some of us were pastoralists but now most of our livelihood
depends on farming,” he said.
“But farming is like a game of chance, you harvest or you don’t. In the
pastoral system, you move with the drought. At the farm you may
work so hard for nothing.”
Insecurity is affecting livestock movement too - there has been internal
pressure in Somali Region from armed groups seeking the region’s
secession.
Informal trade
Despite the odds, pastoralists, estimated at about 15 percent of the
population, are contributing about 40 percent of the agricultural gross
domestic product in Ethiopia, according to a 2009 Humanitarian Policy
Group paper.
Informal systems, heavily dependent on communal ties, are especially
important in the dynamic unofficial cross-border trade in live animals in
exchange for consumer goods across porous borders. The government
describes the trade as contraband.
“If a trader has the animals, we disperse them in different ways to
Somaliland as we speak the same language,” said a livestock broker at
the Jijiga Livestock Market. Nearly all animals crossing into Somalia are
re-exported to Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Gulf states.
“There are few legal livestock exporters as we are limited by the tax
system,” he added.
Official marketing systems are burdened by regulations and taxes.
“Livestock traders want to formalize the trade but there are bureaucracy
problems such as the requirement to open accounts, and the need for
foreign exchange yet Somalia lacks a functioning central bank,” said
Mohamed Abdinoor, the US Agency for International Development
(USAID) pastoral and livestock programmes technical adviser.
The peripheral location of most pastoral regions leads to their being
squeezed out of domestic livestock markets. Cattle and sheep sold in
Addis Ababa, for instance, predominantly come from the highland
areas, exacerbating informal trade in a country said to have the largest
livestock population in Africa.
According to Abdinoor, a clear policy on pastoral lands and reliable
meat and live animal markets will help.
USAID’s Pastoralist Livelihood Initiative programme is providing
development and emergency support through pasture rehabilitation,
water harvesting, targeted livestock feeding and slaughter destocking. It
is also providing linkages with livestock pharmacies and animal health
workers.
Livestock serve as critical buffers against falling into persistent poverty,
not only in pastoralist areas.
“We depend on God. We also support each other in times of hardship
by loaning animals,” livestock trader Abdikarim told IRIN.
According to a UK-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
report, effective engagement with pastoralists requires an understanding
of these supportive connections. “This… is critical for pastoral systems
where social, political, economic and environmental insecurity is
catapulting people from managing well to merely surviving, often
without warning.”
Women’s role
Pastoral women are increasingly involved in income generating
activities, too, ranging from goats and sheep brokerage to buying and
reselling bulls and cereals.
The milk trade largely depends on women.
Every morning, women in their brightly coloured shawls unload
donkeys and camels laden with yellow milk jerricans at collection points
strategically along the highway to Jijiga town.
“We all know each other. There is no risk of the middle man running
off with our money,” said one of the women as she tied her jerricans to
the waiting truck. Unique drawings help identify her jerricans.
“The truck driver takes the milk to a broker in Jijiga for sale. He comes
back with other foodstuffs and commodities that we need.”
Payment is made once every five days.
“Sometimes the milk goes bad and has to be returned. We warn the
women about this,” said truck driver Geshe Alemanyuhu.
There is a lack of milk preservation facilities but the women use smoke
from the burning of some herbs to treat the milking trough, `dhiil’. This,
they say, keeps milk fresher for longer.
Education
Increasingly, pastoralists are also embracing education. “In the past, the
brightest boy in the family would be kept back from formal education
and educated through the clan. Increasing livelihood insecurity and
reduced herd size for some is changing that. Now the brightest boys, if
it can be afforded, are being selected to send to school,” the IDS report
said.
But barriers remain such as long trekking distances to school. The
harsh climate in Afar, for instance, also means that fewer children there
attend and stay in school, as families depend on mobility to survive.
CARE’s Hopkins said: “For the pastoralist, education is being seen as an
adaptive mechanism.”
Courtesy
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| Photo: Nena Terell/USAID A camel seller at the Jijiga livestock market |