Pastoralists’ Conceptions of Poverty: An Analysis of Traditional and Conventional Indicators from Borana, Ethiopia

Tache, Boku; Sjaastad, Espen

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2010.01.001

Cited by 34 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The first part of the questionnaire concerned the household, household head and number of people; the second part livestock ownership, both at present (2011) and in the past (2000); and the third land cultivation, size of land being cultivated and site of land. Total livestock units (TLU) were calculated by assigning a value of 0.7 for cattle, 0.1 for sheep and goats and 1.0 for camels (Tache and Sjaastad 2010). Kebele heads and elders were consulted and briefed on the research programme and participated in open-ended discussions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He usually has one or two wives, but can have more if he is wealthy. Borana are identified with cattle and, traditionally, the number of cattle owned by a Borana signified his wealth status (Berhanu et al 2007;Tache and Sjaastad 2010). In addition to providing milk (Figure 3), meat, skins and cash, cattle also serve cultural, social and ritual functions (Watson 2003;Berhanu et al 2007).…”

Section: The Boranamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cattle Reduction and Livestock Diversification among Borana Pastoralists in Southern Ethiopia

Boru¹,

Schwartz²,

Kam³

et al. 2014

Nomadic Peoples

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Recurring droughts have induced many pastoralist groups in Africa to raise more drought-tolerant livestock as a coping strategy. Borana, traditional cattle pastoralists in southern Ethiopia, are one of these groups and have resorted to including more drought-tolerant camels and shoats (sheep and goats) among their livestock. We hypothesised that this livestock diversification would vary according to geographic location (drought severity, proximity to Somalis and to an urban centre) and resources available (wealth, labour) and predicted that: (1) wealthier Borana would be more inclined towards the risky but promising strategy of raising camels, whereas poorer ones would prefer the less prestigious but also less risky shoats; (2) more labour would allow more flexibility in livestock diversification; and (3) the biggest shift in livestock composition would occur in Bulbul, as this kebele (pastoralist association) is the most droughtprone. To test our predictions, we combined qualitative and quantitative methods to examine four kebeles in the Liben wereda (district) of southern Ethiopia. From 2000 to 2011, number of cattle declined by 25.1 and 41.4 head per household (or between 41.9 per cent and 69.0 per cent) in the four kebeles. There was a significant positive relationship between presentday camel numbers and cattle numbers and between the change in camel numbers between 2000 and 2011 and the number of cattle in 2000 in all kebeles. Thus, as predicted, wealthier households -that is, those with the most present day cattle -have the most camels and households that had the most cattle in 2000 were able to add the most camels over the past 11 years. Number of wives had a significant effect on cattle, camels, shoats and total livestock units (TLU) in all kebeles, except Siminto. In Siminto, number of wives affected camels and shoats and number of girls affected cattle and TLU. Siminto, the kebele closest to an urban centre, turned more to land cultivation than the other kebeles, which occupied much of the wives' time. Of the four kebeles, livestock numbers and diversification were lowest in Siminto and, thus, livestock husbandry required the least amount of labour. Girls were able to contribute positively towards this labour. Our prediction that the biggest shift in livestock would occur in Bulbul was not supported. Camels and shoats were most common in Hadhessa and Qorati, which are close to camel-raising Somalis, implying that Borana in these kebeles learnt camel husbandry from the Somalis. Many Borana still Nomadic Peoples 18 No.1 (2014) preferred cattle to other livestock, but were becoming increasingly aware of the economic value of camels and of the importance of shoats.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Boranamentioning

confidence: 99%

Cattle Reduction and Livestock Diversification among Borana Pastoralists in Southern Ethiopia

Boru¹,

Schwartz²,

Kam³

et al. 2014

Nomadic Peoples

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show abstract

“…Jones and Boyd [50] and Upton [51] argue that institutional factors play important roles in prescribing options and shaping adaptation pathways at different scales. In a related observation, Watson [36] reported that, in Borana, the involvement of state and non-state agencies in water resource management through a top-down interventionist approach is seen as interfering rather than helpful to the local adaptation process. In this view, there has been a biased approach towards the development of modern agriculture, a negative attitude towards pastoralism and development policies which have focused on the role of indigenous culture have been deliberately overlooked or ignored [24] [29].…”

Section: Barriers To Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation to Climate Change in the Pastoral and Agropastoral Systems of Borana, South Ethiopia: Options and Barriers

Debela¹,

McNeil²,

Bridle³

et al. 2019

AJCC

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The pastoral and agropastoral systems of the Borana in southern Ethiopia are highly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts. Assistance to enable these smallholders to successfully adapt to future climate change in locally relevant ways can be usefully informed by the analysis and better understanding of past and ongoing adaptation. We conducted farm household surveys, focus group discussions, expert consultations and secondary data collation in 2012 in the Borana. The study employed a combination of Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework to analyse how climate change put pressure on pastoral and agropastoral farming systems and livelihoods, and Pelling's (2011) typological framework to analyse local adaptation responses. Results showed that pastoral and agropastoral households, their communities and institutions adopted a wide range of adaptation options primarily through adjusting their farming practices and diversifying into non-pastoral livelihoods. The smallholders primarily pursued a resilience approach to adaptation with short term goals intended to avoid system disruptions instead of long-term transformational approaches that significantly address the root causes of vulnerability. A range of barriers constrained local adaptive capacity and shaped routes for adaptation. Adaptation pathways that address critical barriers to adapt, integrate indigenous institutions into adaptation and link adaptation with local development process are necessary to bring long-term and non-marginal, major changes that reduce vulnerability and ensure co-benefit of improving livelihoods.

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“…In fact, the reality in Ethiopia regarding the number of poor was always underestimated for political purpose. Nevertheless, underestimation and overestimation happened in the study of the incidence, severity and persistency of rural poverty, understanding rural poverty in Ethiopia needed the convergent view from qualitative and quantitative approach [108,109,110]. On the other hand, the result of poverty highly damaged rural women more than men in Ethiopia, since the household responsibility basically owned her [111].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rural Development Policy: What does Ethiopia Need to Ascertain from China Rural Development Policy to Eradicate Rural Poverty?

Abate¹,

Pei²,

Zhang³

et al. 2018

AJRD

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The struggle against poverty is directly linked to saving rural people. Ethiopia and China have been implementing rural development policies and strategies to lead millions of rural poor out of poverty. The study investigates Ethiopia's and China's rural development policies since the major rural reform periods. The author utilizes data from World Bank (WB) and Food Association Organization (FAO) to scrutinize the consequence of rural development policies towards rural poverty eradication in China and Ethiopia. The paper also describes the literature and based on the data, a series of normative analyses examine the interaction among rural development policy, rural people, and poverty in both nations. The finding of our study strongly urges that the remarkable achievements of China in the huge reduction of rural poverty is basically due to the post-reform commitment of the Communist Party of China towards target-specific, research-based, achievement-oriented and pro-poor rural development policy and implementation. Ethiopia needs to develop and implement bottom-up demand based, top-down incentive oriented, target-specific, research based and pro-poor rural reform strategies to lead millions of rural people from multi-causal poverty. Formulating and implementing target specific, researchbased, achievement-oriented and pro-poor rural development policies and strategies could play a substantial role to eradicate rural poverty in developing countries.

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Pastoralists’ Conceptions of Poverty: An Analysis of Traditional and Conventional Indicators from Borana, Ethiopia

Cited by 34 publications

References 13 publications

Cattle Reduction and Livestock Diversification among Borana Pastoralists in Southern Ethiopia

Cattle Reduction and Livestock Diversification among Borana Pastoralists in Southern Ethiopia

Adaptation to Climate Change in the Pastoral and Agropastoral Systems of Borana, South Ethiopia: Options and Barriers

Rural Development Policy: What does Ethiopia Need to Ascertain from China Rural Development Policy to Eradicate Rural Poverty?

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