+44-7897-074717Mohammed Abdulatifea and Abule Ebrob
This study was conducted to assess the perceptions of pastoralists’ towards range and livestock management practices in Chifra district located in Afar Region. In the study district, there are 19 pastoral associations and these were stratified into two based on altitude i.e., >550-850 m a.s.l and >850-1,100 m a.s.l. Nine pastoral associations were selected randomly from the two altitudes of the study district. In this regard, five PAs from lower altitude (>550-850 m a.s.l) and four PAs from upper altitude (>850-1100 m a.s.l.) were identified for the study. A total of 90 households were selected using a random sampling method, where 40 households were from the upper altitude (>850-1,100 m a.s.l) and 50 households were from the lower altitude (>550-850 m a.s.l) based on proportional number of households available in the two altitude zones. The socio-economic study revealed that average household size in the study district was 7.87 persons per household with a range of 3 to 15. The main sources of household income for the pastoralists were from the sale of livestock, their products and crop production. The pastoral groups in both altitudes of the study district varied in terms of their livestock ownership. There was a significant different at 5% of probability between upper and lower altitudes in the mean number of cows, heifers, small ruminants and camels. Rangelands are the major source of livestock feed in both altitudes and most of the pastoralists in both altitudes (94% in lower altitude and 87.5% in upper altitude) of the study district believed that the rangeland vegetation composition dramatically changed within the past two decades particularly for the most important perennial grasses. Most of the respondents in upper altitude (50%) considered the current condition of the rangelands to be fair, while those in the lower altitude (60%) disclosed that the condition of their rangeland is poor. Most of the pastoralists reflected that, the rangelands are constrained in the study district by the occurrence of recurrent droughts, invasion by bushes and other invasive plants, overgrazing, inappropriate range utilization practices, uncontrolled livestock movement and population increment causes rangeland degradation at high rate. Hence, continues awareness creation through training is very important to strengthening the traditional rangeland and natural resource management practices of the pastoralists and also restoration of the grazing areas through establishment of community based enclosures or resting and also over-sowing highly denuded grazing areas is crucial to improve the grazing area of the study district.
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