Livelihood System in

Pastoral Areas
Objectives
▪ Livestock production systems
▪ Other pastoral livelihoods (specialization vs diversification)
▪ Rangelands: the foundation of pastoral livelihoods

Zerihun.Y
Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Definitions of livelihoods

Livelihoods are ‘means of making a

living’, the various activities and resources
that allow people to live.

Definition

“Livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets

(including both material and social) and
activities required for a means of living.
(Chambers and Conway, 1992).

A livelihood is sustainable when it can:

cope with, and recover from stress and shocks (drought, flood, war, etc.),
maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the
natural resource base”.
Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Definitions of livelihoods

Livelihoods are similar for groups of

people doing similar things.

A “livelihood group” is a group of people who:

access similar resources,
→share similar social and cultural values, and
→have a comparable economic status.

• How people gain access to food and income is determined

by two main factors: geography (determines what the
options are) and wealth (determines how people can
utilize those options).
Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods
Key F = Financial Capital
Components of the livelihoods framework H = Human Capital S = Social Capital
N = Natural Capital P = Physical Capital

This framework considers five types of capital - the “asset pentagon”-

and how these assets are transformed by policies and institutions
into livelihoods strategies.

Livelihood strategies produce

livelihood outcomes

The vulnerability
context impacts on
the livelihood assets
Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Components of the livelihoods framework

Livelihoods are determined by multiple factors

a combination of different types of information is

needed to understand them, including:

Vulnerability context

Livelihood resources or assets

Policies, institutions and processes

Livelihood strategies

Livelihood outcomes or goals

 Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Components of the livelihoods framework

Vulnerability context

The vulnerability context

frames the external environment in which people live.

It includes factors over which people have limited or no control:

Long-term trend factors

• Political instability and war Risk of shocks

• Drought
• Flood Seasonal elements
• Climate change
• Price rise
• …
Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Components of the livelihoods framework

Livelihood resources or assets

People require a range of assets to achieve positive livelihood outcomes:

Human assets

Social assets Political asset

Natural assets

Physical assets

Financial assets

These asset categories are interlinked.

No single category on its own is sufficient to yield all the many and
varied livelihood outcomes that people seek.
 Discussion

Discussion:
What type of assets are at the hands of the
pastoralists?
Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Components of the livelihoods framework

Structur es and processes

Structures (institutions) and processes (policies) are

man-made external factors that shape the options that
people have in achieving their livelihood goals.

They:
influence access to assets and vulnerability to shocks,
operate at all levels, from the local to the international
level,
operate in all spheres, from the most private to the most
public,
can be instrumental in increasing or reducing vulnerability
to disasters (especially Agricultural, land tenure or land
use policies).
Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Components of the livelihoods framework

Livelihood strategies

Livelihood strategies are:

the range and combination of activities and choices that people make
or undertake in stable times to achieve their livelihood goals
(e.g. productive activities, investment strategies, reproductive choices).

Livelihood strategies can be divided into:

Natural resource-based activities
(e.g. cultivation, livestock-keeping, collection and
gathering)

Non-natural resource-based activities

(e.g. trade, services, remittances).
Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Components of the livelihoods framework

Livelihood strategies

These categories livelihood strategies can be divided into categories:

non-farm, off-farm and non-farm livelihood strategies were
practiced by households with different proportion.

❑ Strategies included in on-farm livelihood categories were crop

production and livestock production.

❑ Off-farm strategies included agricultural activities employed out of

the farmland of the households like forest products and fishery.

❑ In addition, activities of employment, trade of animals and crop,

trade of food and drink, sell of handcraft products, income from
carpentry, remittance and gift were taken as non-farm.
Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Components of the livelihoods framework

Livelihood outcomes

Livelihood outcomes can be categorized under three headings:

Economic Food and income security, i.e. the ability to acquire

sufficient food and income to meet basic needs.

Mortality and malnutrition rates or levels are

Biological biological measures of livelihood outcome.

Dignity is clearly a social measure: the right to life

Social with dignity is one of the fundamental principles in
the Humanitarian Charter.
Livelihoods …

❑ The end result of livelihood strategies are livelihood outcomes.

Basic human needs are the primary outcomes of livelihoods
including
• food and water,
• shelter,
• cloth,
• sanitation,
• health care and others.
• However, achievement of the current household need and
preservation of the next generation interests with adequate
quality of life is an ultimate outcome of the livelihoods.
 Livelihood Diversification

Livelihood Diversification
There are three important components of a livelihood diversification that are
richness, evenness and diversification.

❑ Livelihoods richness is the number of livelihoods in a given area of study.

Simple count of livelihood strategy types was done to identify the
livelihoods richness of households in the study area.

❑ The evenness of livelihood strategies considers the number of livelihood

strategies and their relative abundance in the study area.

❑ Diversification assess the number of livelihood strategies and the

relative contribution of the strategies.
 Livelihood Diversity Measurement

• The usual indexes to measure diversification are Herfndahl Index, Simpson

Diversity Index, Ogive Index, Margalef Index, Shannon Index, Berger-Parker
Index and Entropy Index.

• The common method is Simpson diversification index (SDI).

• According to Khatun and Roy (2012) the formula for SDI is as follow
𝐍
𝐒𝐃𝐈 = 𝟏 − ෍ 𝐏𝐢𝟐
𝐢=𝟏
Where N is the total number of income sources and Pi represents the income
proportion of the ith income source.

• The output values of the Simpson diversity index are sorted from 0 to 1.
0-Specilization and 1-Diversification
• Livelihood diversification score of the households was further classified into
• low diversifier (<0.39),
• medium diversifier (0.39-0.63) and
• high diversifier (>0.63) (Saha and Bahal, 2010).
 Discussion

Discussion:
Diversification vs Specialization

✓ Which one is better for East African

pastoralists?
 Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Pastoralist as a Livelihood
Livelihood strategies

• Pastoralism is the finely-horned symbiotic relationship between people,

domesticated livestock and local rangelands in fragile and highly variable
ecosystems, often existing at the threshold of human survival.
• The pastoral resource-use pattern is characterized by risk-spreading and
flexible mechanisms, such as mobility, communal land ownership, large and
diverse herd sizes, and herd separation and splitting. The mixture of livestock
is a system to manage risk.
• Small stock like goats and sheep, although more vulnerable to disease
when compared with large stock, are cash buffers, for they have a high
reproduction rate and they lactate during dry periods. Goats and camels
can survive longer dry periods than cattle and sheep.
• The composition of livestock per family is determined by factors like personal
preferences, ecological conditions, family size and available labor.
 Livelihoods ...
Introduction to Livelihoods

Pastoral Technology and State of Knowledge

Pastoralists has a state of knowledge developed from long time experience and it has the
three characteristics.

▪ Firstly, there are those that can be called common livestock knowledge and practices.
Examples are disease and symptoms, ethno-botany, importance of good husbandry.

▪ Secondly, there are specialised knowledge and practices that are possessed by a smaller
minority of pastoral people from within a large community or communities.
▪ They perform special duties such as treatment of fractured and dislocated bones, assisting
complicated births and so on. They can offer services or advice out of the ordinary.

▪ Thirdly, there are also specialised tasks and skills performed and accepted widely by
members of the same tribal grouping. In this case the whole tribe refers to itself by the
animal it specialises in.
 Livelihoods …
Introduction to Livelihoods

Pastoralism as a ‘system’
The most important resources needed to practice pastoralism are: rangeland
(natural resources), pastoralists or herders and livestocks. They constitute
the three ‘pillars’ or components of the pastoralism, and are common to all
pastoral systems.

External “enabling environment” that

improve the productivity system.
• supplementary animal feeds
• veterinary drugs
• government policy on land or
livestock and institutions
• …
Rangelands: the foundation
of pastoral livelihoods
What are Rangelands?

 What are Rangelands?

◼ Rangelands are vast, natural grasslands, shrublands,
woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that support grazing and
browsing mammals — domestic and/or wild.

 Rangelands are distinguished from pastures because

they are primarily natural ecosystems with native
vegetation rather than plants established by humans.
 Introduction cont…

 Rangelands are dynamic ecosystems that

produce a wide variety of goods and services
desired by society, including:
✓ livestock forage,
✓ wildlife habitat,
✓ water,
✓ mineral resources,
✓ wood products,
✓ wildland recreation,
✓ open space and natural beauty.
Multiple Use
 Because rangelands have many important uses,
most rangelands are managed under principles of
multiple-use.
 Several uses or values of rangeland are managed
simultaneously with care to avoid overuse or
destruction of natural resources.
 Why are rangelands important?
Forage Wildlife Habitat
Livestock Production

Recreation
Native Plants

Water

Open Space Energy Minerals

Livestock Production
◼ Livestock production on rangeland is
very important to supply meat and
milk for the world populations and
also for leather, wool, mohair, and
other products that livestock yield.
Livestock Production
 Rangelands are used for livestock
grazing.

 Range livestock production is

major agricultural activity in terms
of land used and cash receipts

 Rang is a base of pastoralism

Types of Animals

 The kinds of animals that can be raised in particular regions depend on

the local rangeland. Animals are also constrained by the grazing, water,
access to land and tradition.
 There are two kinds of pastoral animals: grazers and browsers.
◼ Browsers generally eat the leaves from bushes and trees,
◼ Grazers primarily consume grasses and other low-growing plants.

 If the animals are browsers, bushes and trees rather than grasses
would make up a decent pasture. However, the term "grazing" is
frequently used to describe both grazing and browsing domesticated
animal feeding habits. Many indigenous species of animals are
produced by pastoral communities.
Rangeland Management?
 What are renewable and non-
renewable resources?
Non-renewable resources: once they were
used for consumption, their renewal is not
possible or requires thousands of years.
Example- Oil

Renewable resources: those that wear out

due to their consumption but regenerate rapidly
naturally or by human action.
Example- freshwater, wood
→In addition, these resources are characterized
by being sustainable.
Rangeland Management Terminology

➢ Rangeland (Range)- Uncultivated land that will provide the

necessities of life for grazing and browsing animals.
➢ Rangelands are renewable resources; they can produce on a
sustained yield basis if properly managed.

➢ Rangeland Management- Manipulation of rangeland

components to obtain optimum combination of goods and
services for society on a sustained basis.
Rangeland Management is:
 The use and stewardship of rangeland resources to
meet goals and desires of humans.
 A Planning Process
CURRENT FUTURE

 Planning examines different alternatives to see

which is the “best “ future world.
Rangeland Management
Source of Decision?
? ?
?

?
CURRENT FUTURE
Rangeland Management
Source of Decision?
tradition guesses
information

hunches
CURRENT FUTURE
Why do we need science?
Mangers must integrate scientific knowledge with ideas,
hunches, traditions, etc., to make wise decisions.
✓ To understand the physical, biological, and social processes
that affect rangelands.
✓ To discover principles on which to base the wise use of
rangelands.
✓ Others?

Range management is the ART and SCIENCE of managing

rangelands. You can’t manage based off science.
Rangeland Management
What kinds of decisions do we make?

CURRENT FUTURE

• Political – laws and policies

• Economic – buy, sell
• Direct actions
What is the role of Education?
 Convey what is known to society
 Stop non-objective views
 Lead to wise land use discussion and support
for actions.
Tools and practices of Range Management
 Fire/Range burning - if properly controlled and managed, can be
a valuable tool to manipulate vegetation composition, structure, and fuel
loads on rangelands.

 Integrated weed management

*Prevention
*Physical Control(Human and Machine power)
*Biological Control
*Chemical Control
*Sustainable use of the weed

 Restoration & rehabilitation

◼ Soil and water conservation works
◼ Area closure
Tools and practices of Range Management …
 Development and distribution of watering facilities on the range
areas.

 Salting – providing plenty of salt at proper places uniformly on the range

areas.
 Fencing – fencing the large area into a small area and also the seeded
areas (because we need to save it in early growth stage)

 Range reseeding
 Range fertilization
Principles of Rangeland Management
 There are four major principles of range management:
1. Correct kind of animals (livestock)
2. The correct number of Animals
3. Correct season of range use, or grazing
4. Proper (uniform) distribution of livestock on range areas
 There are following determinant factors for the correct
kind of animals:
o Preference
o Water requirement
o Topography
o Palatability of forage species
Discussion
What type of range land management measures
are appropriate for the East Africa?
Thank you!!