Bachelor Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Economic and Social History, Addis Ababa University (College of business and economics), course: Economics, language: English, abstract: The objective of this study is to assess the major factors affecting the sustainable livelihood of Borana pastoralist. This study specially focuses on drought, bush encroachment, resource base shrinkage, customary institution and development intervention policy. A qualitative survey research design was used. The purposive sampling technique was employed to select a sample from the population. Data was gathered through semi-structure interview and focused group discussion, and the collected data was analyzed through a descriptive method. This study found that recurrent drought, expansion in bush encroachment, resource base shrinkage, erosion in customary institution and current state development intervention policy has negatively affected the sustainable livelihood of Borana pastoralist.

In Ethiopia, pastoralists reside in semi-arid and arid lowlands. The long established multifaceted isolation compounded with negative effects of climate change, population growth and environmental degradation has severely undermined pastoral economic systems, livelihoods and food security. The poor integration of lowland and highland economic systems into the national economy has potentially hindered economic growth and livelihood diversification in pastoral systems. This study was, therefore, aimed at investigating and understanding the nature, scope and constraints of economic and market interactions between lowland and highland economic systems and the implications of the interactions for sustainable livelihoods of pastoralists. The study focused specifically on examining the profile of pastoralistsi economic engagements and their income contributions; exploring types and magnitude of product and service exchanges between lowland pastoralists and highland farmers and accessibility conditions of the major markets visited by pastoralists; assessing constraints to market interactions between lowland and highland communities; exploring the existing lowland pastoral and highland farming systems. The study has also attempted to draw implications of the lowland and highland economic interactions for mitigation of conflicts and pastoral economic growth."

Pastoralists’ role in contemporary Africa typically goes underappreciated and misunderstood by development agencies, external observers, and policymakers. Yet, arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL), which are used predominantly for extensive livestock grazing, comprise nearly half of the continent’s land mass, while a substantial proportion of national economies are based on pastoralist activities. Pastoralists use these drylands to generate income for themselves through the use of livestock and for the coffers of national trade and revenue agencies. They are frequently among the continent’s most contested and lawless regions, providing sanctuary to armed rebel groups and exposing residents to widespread insecurity and destructive violence. The continent’s millions of pastoralists thus inhabit some of Africa’s harshest and most remote, but also most ecologically, economically, and politically important regions. This study summarizes the findings of a multi-year interdisciplinary research project in pastoral areas of Kenya and Ethiopia. The cultures and ecology of these areas are described, with a particular focus on the myriad risks that confront people living in these drylands, and how these risks are often triggered by highly variable rainfall conditions. The authors examine the markets used by residents of these areas to sell livestock and livestock products and purchase consumer goods before turning to an analysis of evolving livelihood strategies. Furthermore, they focus on how well-being is conditioned upon access to livestock and access to the cash economy, gender patterns within households and the history of development activities in the area. The book concludes with a report on how these activities are assessed by people in the area and what activities they prioritize for the future. Policy in pastoral areas is often formulated on the basis of assumptions and stereotypes, without adequate empirical foundations. This book provides evidence on livelihood strategies being followed in pastoral areas, and investigates patterns in decision making and well being. It indicates the importance of livestock to the livelihoods of people in these areas, and identifies the critical and widespread importance of access to the cash economy, concluding that future development activities need to be built on the foundation of the livestock economy, instead of seeking to replace it.

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Instructor Plans: Agriculture / Forestry / Gardening, Dilla University, language: English, abstract: This study assesses the factors influencing pastoralists’ livestock income in the Yabello district in Ethiopia. The study employed primary data collected through household surveys. The 120 respondents were participated in the survey process those culled utilizing systematic random sampling procedures. A multiple linear regression model and descriptive statistics analysis were acclimated to find the result of the study. Livestock plays a significant role in the pastoral economy of Yabello. Most of the sample households’ income source comes from livestock production, crop production and off-farm activities. The prominent result is that livestock production is the largest source of income for the sample household in Yabello. The total household farm income, which is a contribution of income from livestock and crop production, contributes the highest share in total household income in the study area. The statistical descriptive analysis indicated that livestock income was significantly associated with household age, family size, livelihoods choice, market price, and livestock holding of the household heads. The regression model also shows the factors that determine livestock income of the household heads in the study area was family size, livelihood strategy, livestock sales, livestock market price, pastoral extension agent contact and breed type was statically significant at 1% probability level. Livestock disease, drought and conflict risk was statically significant at 5% probability level. The study suggests that these pastoralists’ livestockincome-influencing factors should be cautiously incorporated in pastoral development policies in order to ameliorate the pastoral household’s livestock income in the study area.

Pastoralism and Climate Change in East Africa provides systematic and robust empirical investigations on the impact of climate change on pastoral production systems, as well as participating in the ongoing debate over the efficacy of traditional pastoralism. This book is an initial product of the Project Building Knowledge to Support Climate Change Adaptation for Pastoralist Communities in East Africa implemented by the Centre for Climate Change Studies of the University of Dar es Salaam with support from the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa. Traditional pastoralism has proved to be a resilient and unique system of adaptations in a dynamic process of unpredictable climatic variability and continuous human interactions with the natural environment in dryland ecosystems. Pastoral adaptations and climate-induced innovative coping mechanisms have strategically been embedded in the indigenous social structures and resource management value systems. Pastoral livelihoods have, nevertheless, become increasingly vulnerable to climate change impacts as a result of prolonged marginalization and harmful external interventions. The negative effect of global climate change has been an added dimension to the already prevailing crisis in the pastoral livelihood system, which is substantially driven by non-climatic factors of internal and external pressures of change such as population growth, bad governance and shrinking rangelands lost to competing activities.