Assessment of Pastoral Perceptions towards Range and Livestock Management Practices in Chifra District of Afar Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the perceptions of pastoralists' about range and livestock management practeices as influenced buy altitude in Chifra district of the Afar Regional State, Ethiopisa. There are 19 pastoral associations and these were stratified into two based on altitude i.e. >55-850m above seal level and >850-1,100m above sea level. Nine pastoral associations were selected randomly from the two altitudes of the study district. In this regard, five PAs from lower altitude and four PAs from upper altitude were identified for the study. A total of 90 households were selected using a random sampling method, where 40 households were from the upper and 50 from the lower altitude zones. The socio-economic study revealed that average household size in the study district was 7.87 persons per household with a rnage of 3 to 15. The households were interviewed independently. The main source of income was from the sale of livestock, their products and crop production. There was a significant different (p<0.05) in mean number of animals owned by the pastalists living in different altitude groups. Rangelands are the major source of livestock feed and most of the pastoralists in both altitudes believed that the composition of rangeland vegetation dramatically changed in the past two decades. 50 and 60% in the upper and lower altitudes rated their rangelands as far and poor in condition, respectively. Hence, continued awareness creation through training of the pastoral communities, and restoration of the rangelands through different approaches are crucial to improve the rangelands.