Food security in pastoralist areas of Ethiopia

This is a book about food security in the harsh and fragile lowlands of eastern and southern Ethiopia. It describes how local people and development organizations ensure food security in such an environment. It documents the experiences of over 30 development organizations and project sin the Afar and Somali Regions, and the Boorana Zone of Oromiya Region. This book also offers a series of suggestions that government, donors and development organizations can consider when designing and implementing food security interventions in the region.

This book is not exhaustive, either geographically or in terms of topics. It is written with the hope that it is sufficiently broad to give ideas and lessons for developing food security interventions and strategies in pastoralist and dry areas of Ethiopia.

Contents

1 Introduction

• About this book

2 Water

• Riverbed wells in Korahai zone
• Water management in Boorana
• Harvesting steam in Afar
• Birkas
• Haffir dams
• Water management by the Afar
• Private good or communal right?

3 Livestock

• Improving fodder security
• Destocking
• Supporting restocking
• Animal health services

4 Rangeland and resource management

• Managing rangeland
• Conserving rangeland biodiversity
• Prosopis juliflora
• Protecting forests in Afar

5 Crops

• Cultivation along the Awash River
• Drought and flood along the Web River
• Flood recession cropping in Ferfer
• Using maize tops as forage
• Thinning maize
• Pooling labour to grow crops

6 Alternative foods

• Drought foods from meat
• Drought foods from cereals
• Other drought foods

7 Income diversification

• Diversifying incomes
• Strengthening markets
• Savings and credit
• Cooperatives

8 Institutions

• Traditional institutions
• Gender
• The threat of chat

9 Services

• Schools for girls
• Mobile outreach camps
• Teachers who move with the herds

10 Conflicts

• Effects of conflicts
• Causes of conflicts
• Traditional conflict resolution
• External intervention
• Gereb courts in northeastern Ethiopia
• A successful external intervention in South Omo
• The danger of ignoring traditional mechanisms
• An unresolved conflict

11 Policies and advocacy

• Advocacy

12 Appendices

• Further reading
• Participants’ profiles

Published 2004 by the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, Nairobi, Kenya; www.iirr.org  ISBN 9966-9705-7-6. 132 pp.

Available from IIRR Africa

Role of Paul Mundy: Writeshop manager, editing, desktop publishing, overall responsibility for production