Studies indicate that Ethiopia has the largest cattle population in Africa. Cattle breading is practiced since the ancient time both in the low and high land parts of the country. But the sector is still very traditional and its contribution to the Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is less than the expected.
Among the many factors which hamper the sector's growth are shortage of forage, water and veterinary service. The location of the places where the livestock are available is far from the formal market, and their type of species which provides less milk and meat products also contribute to its substandard growth.
12% of the population in Ethiopia is living in the low land parts mostly in arid areas and engaged in pastoral life. The area is characterized by shortage of rain and in time of drought, the availability of water and forage will be dwindled and when it becomes severe, catastrophic consequence will occur. In addition to these, the absence of veterinary services critically affects the sector.
The pastoral community has rarely developed the culture of consuming meat even in time of adversity. They mostly consume milk. As they live far away from the central market place, they don't take to market for selling their animals in time of drought with the aim to converting the live animals in to cash. Therefore, the economic value of the animals is remained insignificant.
It is remembered that two years ago, only in the south eastern Ethiopia, in Somali and Oromia regions, millions of cattle lost their life due to drought and this clearly indicates that how the sector is not climate resilient.
The death of the cattle critically affected the livelihood of the pastoral community and rehabilitating them to restart new life is very challenging which needs billions of Birr.
The number of cattle population in the high land parts of the country is exceeding that of the low land parts. People engaged in sedentary farming in the high land parts of the country also rear cattle. But mostly they use it as the means of energy for farming and transportation purpose. Behind the growth of crop yield, there is labor of the cattle. Similar to the low land parts, there is shortage of both forage and water. Currently, due to shortage of farm land posed by population pressure, some grazing and wet lands are invaded by people who suffer from lack of land and cultivate their crops.
Ethiopia's meat and milk per capita consumption is very low when compared to the Sub Saharan African countries. In fact, currently, Ethiopia exports live animals to the Middle East market but the volume of hard currency it contributes to the Gross National Product is very small.
The government pursues the policy of expanding the manufacturing sector to create link with the agriculture, create job opportunity and boost export. However, the supply of livestock products to the agro industries is not developed as it is expected. Some of the flourishing abattoirs are not producing by their full capacity due to shortage of industrial inputs imported by the hardly gained foreign currency and shortage of cattle supply because of deteriorating security issues in some parts of the country.
Ethiopia aspired to earn billions of Dollars from export of leather and leather products but due to shortage of supply of inputs it was unable to meet the plan.
Since Long ago, the successive governments of Ethiopia strived to modernize the sector and took various measures. Among others, starting from the 1950s, agricultural colleges and research institutions which centered the livestock development were established in different parts of the country such as Haromaya, Jimma, Holeta and Amibara agricultural research institutions to mention but few. Many professionals have been graduated from these agricultural institutions.
Some of the graduates from these Colleges have become the celebrated scientists working in the USA and Europe and others are serving their country.
To strengthen the ongoing research and study on the livestock, the government established Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute and the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency. In addition to providing extension service to the sector, the two institutions provided hybrid species of animals to farmers.
According to the recent FAO report, Ethiopia's agriculture sector accounts for 40% of the country's GDP and employs 75% of the country's workforce. Livestock is a key component in this sector--in fact Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa, with 70 million cattle, 42 million sheep, 52 million goats, 8 million camels, and 56 million chickens.
Therefore, Ethiopia's livestock is vital to the country's economic well-being and is a key component in the government's aim to ensure food security and decrease reliance on agricultural imports, as outlined in Ethiopia's Ten-Year Strategic Development Plan of the Ministry of Agriculture. To meet these goals, Ethiopia needs a more robust tool for managing livestock data, known as a Livestock Information System (LIS).
A project aimed at establishing commercially viable and sustainable forage markets for dairy producers in Ethiopia is recently launched.
Speaking on the launching ceremony, Livestock Development Institute Director-General, Asrat Tera said the project focuses on increasing the demand for climate-smart forage among small-scale producers in dairy villages; increasing the supply of nutrient-dense climate-smart forage grown locally and strengthening the enabling environment for forage market development.
The project will be implemented in six regions of Ethiopia--Oromia, Amhara, and Sidama, as well as the Central, Southern, and South West Ethiopia--and brings best practices to the other regions, he added.
The Nourishing Prosperity Alliance Forage project in Ethiopia will be implemented in collaboration with various pertinent bodies, including Corteva Agriscience, Forage Genetics International (FGI), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and local partners of the Nourishing Prosperity Alliance (NPA), with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Land O'Lakes Venture 37.
According to Asrat, the project directly aligns with the millstone of Yelemat Tirufat, and hence, the Ministry of Agriculture renders whatever support is needed to achieve the milestones of the project through its local partner institutions.
Land O'Lakes Venture 37 Group Director, Dai Harvey, said the project will be implemented in the next five years. The Nourishing Prosperity Alliance Forage project is looking at the commercialization of forage in Ethiopia and also in Kenya to improve animal nutrition so as to improve the productivity of animals across East Africa.
The group director pointed out that in Ethiopia's context, the project will significantly contribute to improving the productivity of the dairy animals with the view to enhancing the amount of milk being produced from existing dairy animals across Ethiopia, starting in high-dairy potential regions of the country.
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The current Ethiopia's livestock information is impacted by input data of varied quality and a limited capacity for data analysis, including comparison which slows down the flow of information to stakeholders and limits their ability to use data to shape production decisions.
With all these limitations combined, stakeholders have access to only segments of Ethiopia's livestock sector and therefore, are limited in data driven decision making.
Ethiopia's MoA recognized the challenges facing the agriculture sector and, in 2017, partnered with stakeholders to transform the country's livestock data ecosystem. This was the first phase of live program. During this phase, the MoA worked closely with the Livestock Investment Corporation (LIC) and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (LIC) and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to conduct a landscape analysis of the livestock data ecosystem which outlined stakeholder needs and the state of the livestock data ecosystem.
From this landscape analysis, the partners developed the Livestock Information System (LIS) Roadmap, which provides an overarching vision for the development of comprehensive LIS which includes discrete steps on how to achieve this vision. For the second phase of the LIS program, the Director General will take the lead on the technology implementation stage.
BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2023
