This book documents recent research undertaken on dryland husbandry in the north-eastern region of Ethiopia. The research was tailored to benefit pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, community leader, extension agents, local government officials and experts: in short, to put local people first. It adopted a grassroots, bottom up and participatory approach, and intends to further economic and social change in the area. Subjects addressed include indigenous knowledge systems, rangeland resources, range improvement through closure and reseeding trials; veterinary practices, water harvesting, forage trails, sorghum transplanting trials, fruit tree trails and participatory vegetable trials.
Crop production in the drought-prone tropics has been relatively neglected by research and development workers, largely due to its poor potential for commercial exploitation. Despite this, a considerable amount of information is available on this subject, but there have been few attempts to draw it together and to relate it to the needs of subsistence and small farmers, and to the particular set of constraints under which they labour.
Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Regional Geography, , language: English, abstract: Decreasing productivity of the pastoral system arising from low pastoral development emphasis by both regional and central government and various environmental challenges are forcing pastoralists to practice unscrupulous land cultivation. This review paper aimed at presenting overview of the expansion of dryland farming, explores its drivers and prospect of pastoral livelihood among Ethiopian pastoralists. Analytical reviews that critically compare the finding of different research were used, and keywords were used as searching method. This review indicates that farming is expanding and becoming popular in pastoralist of southern Ethiopia. Pastoralism is in the dynamic condition than ever before due to multiple factor. Climate challenges, land degradation, land tenure insecurity, government policy on pastoralists settlements, conflicts, and socio-economic factors are the major drivers of dryland farming. Thus, traditionally mobile livestock keeping among pastoralists of southern Ethiopia is becoming tougher than ever before. Opportunistic farming in the area is serving as means of subsistence for poor pastoral drop out. Conversion of pastoral lands for cultivation is not appropriate strategy for environmental health as well sustainability of the pastoral system. Practicing only extensive pastoralism in the area is also rarely possible. Therefore, dryland farming should support livestock rearing in a way that assures environmental health and economic sustainability for pastoral communities.
D ryland regions in Sub-Saharan Africa are home to one-half of the region’s population and three-quarters of its poor. Poor both in natural resources and in assets and income, the inhabitants of drylands are highly vulnerable to droughts and other shocks. Despite a long history of interventions by governments, development agencies, and civil society organizations, there have been no sustained large-scale successes toward improving the resilience of drylands dwellers. Improved Agricultural Water Management for Africa’s Drylands describes the extent to which agricultural water management interventions in dryland regions of Sub-Saharan Africa can enhance the resilience and improve the well-being of the people living in those regions, proposes what can realistically be done to promote improved agricultural water management, and sets out how stakeholders can make those improvements. After reviewing the current status of irrigation and agricultural water management in the drylands, the authors discuss technical, economic, and institutional challenges to expanding irrigation. A model developed at the International Food Policy Research Institute is used to project the potential for irrigation development in the Sahel Region and the Horn of Africa. The modeling results show that irrigation development in the drylands can reduce vulnerability and improve the resilience of hundreds of thousands of farming households, but rainfed agriculture will continue to dominate for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, many soil and water conservation practices that can improve the productivity and ensure the sustainability of rainfed cropping systems are available. The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the potentially highly benefi cial role of water and water management in drylands agriculture in association with agronomic improvements, market growth, and infrastructure development, and to assess the technological and socioeconomic conditions and institutional policy frameworks that can remove barriers to adoption and allow wide-scale take-up of improved agricultural water management in the dryland regions of Sub-Saharan Africa.
