Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems Ethiopia: Animal Source Foods Production and Marketing Brief

This sector is the source of animal protein, power for crop cultivation, means of transportation, export commodities, manure for farmland and household energy, security in times of crop failure, and means of wealth accumulation. Ethiopia is divided into a highland (>1,500 m above sea level) and a lowland (<1,500 m above sea level), which includes pastoral and agro-pastoral areas. The highland comprises 39% of the land areas of the country, 88% of human population, and 74% of the tropical livestock units, while the remainder is in the lowlands. The Ethiopian livestock population is almost entirely composed of indigenous animals. Recent estimates show that 98.66%, 1.19%, and 0.14% of cattle are indigenous, hybrid, and exotic breeds, respectively; the respective estimates for sheep are 99.78%, 0.17%, and 0.05%, and for poultry are 95.86%, 2.79%, and 1.35%. Nearly all goats (99.99%) are indigenous breeds. There are three predominant management systems in the country: intensive management, mixed crop-livestock, and pastoral/agro-pastoral. The intensive management system is practiced on the recently booming market-oriented dairy and poultry farms in urban and peri-urban areas. In the mixed farming system, livestock come after crops as the means of household livelihood. Cattle are the most important livestock species in this system because they are used for ploughing and compacting of farm lands, threshing crops, and providing manure. Sheep, goats, equines, and poultry are also important sources of income, meat, draft power, and manure. In some places, a few farmers keep one or more improved cows for milk production. The mean number of household members in the mixed crop-livestock farming system is around six people. Studies have indicated that children are involved in herding and watering of livestock; women are responsible for collecting water, milking, milk processing, selling the milk products, and cleaning barn or animal shed; and men are mainly responsible for feeding the livestock with hay and crop residues. The average farm land per household is 1.4 ha in Lemo district (Hadiya zone), one of the densely populated areas in SNNPR, and 4.5 ha in Bale, a less densely populated area in Oromia. A very small part of each family plot is used for livestock production. Livestock production in the mixed farming system is limited by several factors, including declining availability of grazing lands due to increasing human population and encroachment for crop cultivation; poor production and reproductive performance; and lack of or inadequate access to technologies. The main feeds available for urban dairying are crop residues, hay, and industrial by-products. Shortages of feed and extremely high feed prices, disease incidence, lack of land/space, shortage of genetically improved heifers for expansion, and limited market outlets for milk are factors that limit the development of urban dairying in Ethiopia.