Social And Economic Development In Ethiopia

Introduction

Ethiopia is a home for many livestock species and suitable for livestock production. Ethiopia is believed to have the largest livestock population in Africa (CSA 2013; Solomon et al. 2003; Tilahun and Schmidt 2012). An estimate indicates that the country is a home for about 54 million cattle, 25.5 million sheep and 24.06 million goats. The livestock subsector has an enormous contribution to Ethiopia’s national economy and livelihoods of many Ethiopians, and still promising to rally round the economic development of the country. Livestock plays vital roles in generating income to farmers, creating job opportunities, ensuring food security, providing services, contributing to asset, social, cultural and environmental values, and

According to Bureau of Planning and Economic Development (BOPED) report trends in cattle population in the region slightly increasing starting from 1997 while it was relatively constant for sheep and goats (BOPED, 2002). Livestock have various social and economic functions in both highlands and lowlands/pastoral farming systems. In the highland and mid altitude areas of the region, livestock are part of the mixed farming complex providing integrated inputs for crop production (i.e. traction, threshing, transport and manure) and outputs such as milk, meat, eggs, wool, hides and skins. In the lowland parts of the region, livestock are generally the sole sources of livelihood providing milk; meat and transport at large, while hides and skins provide additional income (Million T, 2003). Of the total household cash income from crop and livestock, livestock account for 37 to 87% in different parts of the country (Ayele et al., 2003), and the higher the cash income, the higher is the share of livestock, indicating that increased cash income comes primarily from livestock, particularly in the pastoral

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