CATTLE REDUCTION AND LIVESTOCK DIVERSIFICATION AMONG BORANA PASTORALISTS IN SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Rangelands, predominant in arid and semi-arid areas, constitute the Earth's largest land use system. Extensive pastoral production is practised on 25 per cent of the world's land, where land cultivation is limited by lack of rainfall, steep terrain or extreme temperatures (FAO 2001). Nomadic and transhumant pastoralists who depend on these rangelands are estimated to be between 180 and 200 million globally (Brown 2002; FAO 2003; Davies and Hatfield 2007). In sub-Saharan Africa, about 50 million people, or 16 per cent of the population, rely on pastoralism for their livelihood (SCBD 2010). For these people, seasonal livestock mobility and strategic use of natural resources are crucial (Niamir-Fuller 2005; Davies 2008; Hesse and Cavanna 2010). Over the past few decades, pastoralists have been affected by the loss of grazing lands, as well as by increasing climate variability (Galvin 2009; Beyene 2010; Butt 2011). Furthermore, in arid and semi-arid areas, population growth has spurred competition between rangelands and marginal cropping (Homann et al. 2008). The increase in cropping and sedentarisation has led to land fragmentation (Galvin 2009), reducing grazing ranges and pastoral mobility, while depleting dry season grazing reserves (Angassa and Oba 2008; Sere et al. 2008). In addition, ethnic conflicts, often involving livestock raiding, have also limited pastoralist mobility (Kagunyu et al. 2007). According to climatic records from UNDP Climate Change, mean annual air temperature in Ethiopia has increased by 1.3 degrees C between 1960 and 2006, an average of 0.28 degrees C per decade (Riche et al. 2009). Concomitantly, the interval between droughts has decreased substantially, as they can now occur every one to two years (Homann et al. 2008; Riche et al. 2009). These droughts have caused the death of many livestock (Pantuliano 2001), in particular cattle (Coppock et al. 2008), which has led pastoralists to cope with droughts by diversifying their livestock to more drought-resistant animals (Osterle 2008). Borana pastoralists are faced with these problems. They were traditional cattle pastoralists (Figure 1) who depended almost solely on their animals for their livelihood. However, consistent with today's general trend of livestock diversification among pastoralist groups, Borana are raising more drought-resistant livestock (Tache and Oba 2010; Degen 2011) and are resorting to cultivating land. This paper deals with livestock diversification strategies, preferred cattle to other livestock, but were becoming increasingly aware of the economic value of camels and of the importance of shoats.