Report Number 3
Pastoral Economic Growth and Development Policy Assessment, Ethiopia

By Peter D. Little, Roy Behnke, John McPeak, and Getachew Gebru

This report addresses policy options for improving pastoral economies and development in Ethiopia and their different tradeoffs. We draw heavily on the findings of our two previous reports (1 and 2) and highlight four key policy areas: (1) land use, especially in the highly productive river valleys; (2) land tenure; (3) settlement and sedentarization; and (4) trade (including related areas, such as animal feed). We feel these four areas are consistent with the government‘s goals of agriculture-led industrialization, job creation, and private-sector led growth. There is considerable overlap among the four policy topics, but the general message is that policies are needed to: (1) sustain the efficient use of variable dry rangelands by protecting the importance of pastoral mobility and avoiding sedentarization as a general solution to pastoral development problems; (2) recognizing existing tenure systems that insure pastoralists access to land and water resources, so they can produce their tradable products; and (3) pursue both regional and domestic trade rather than mainly pursue overseas international and high risk markets. Other policy topics that are covered in the report include veterinary services, education, and income diversification. Limits of space did not allow us to include all policy-relevant topics important to pastoral development in Ethiopia.