Pastoralist Areas Resilience Improvement and Market Expansion (PRIME) Project Year 7, Quarter 2 Report

Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), PRIME aims to enhance prospects for long-term development in Ethiopia's dryland landscape where the pastoralist livelihood system prevails. The project is financed through Feed the Future (FTF) and Global Climate Change (GCC) facilities and is designed to be transformative and innovative, achieving scale through market-driven approaches to livestock production and livelihood diversification. PRIME works to meet five major objectives, including improving productivity and competitiveness of livestock and livestock products, enhancing pastoralists' adaptation to climate change, strengthening alternative livelihoods for households transitioning out of pastoralism, ensuring enhanced innovation, learning, and knowledge management, and improving nutritional status of targeted households through targeted, sustained, and evidence-based interventions. The project focuses on the Eastern and Southern clusters of Ethiopia, where the pastoralist livelihood system prevails. During the reporting quarter, PRIME supported the Berwako Dairy and Poultry Production Cooperative to roll out hydroponic fodder production, providing them with equipment and training to enable the cooperative to continue producing soil-less fodder and demonstrate to other farmers and agro-pastoralists. The project also supported the Berwako Milk Collection Cooperative to overcome the challenge of increased rates of milk spoilage by installing a solar panel to power their refrigerators. PRIME's team conducted follow-up activities on live animal trading, including improved outcomes by livestock traders from their multiple business-to-business linkage gatherings. The team conducted discussions with traders in Jigjiga, Babile, Degahbur, and other markets, and most of the livestock traders confirmed they have not collected an adequate number of livestock for export from these markets. Small-scale shoat fattening groups are operating and collecting sheep and goats for re-sale in the markets for domestic consumption in the major towns. In the Southern cluster, PRIME facilitated a training on strengthening the livestock disease surveillance and reporting system for federal, regional, and district representatives. The project also conducted an additional training on alternative feed technologies, feed formulation, and improved feeding practices, in partnership with Ethio-Feed in this cluster. PRIME continued supporting the ongoing activities and processes under both natural resource management and climate change adaptation. The natural resource management component has been facilitating and supporting rangeland council dialogues, restoration of rangelands, endorsement of rangeland management plans, and regional rangeland management learning workshops. PRIME conducted a two-day regional participatory rangeland management (PRM) workshop on lessons learned, achievements, challenges, and anticipated future progress in Jigjiga, attended by 38 members from regional sectoral bureaus and six work offices, traditional weather forecasters, and community representatives. The project also conducted validation and endorsement workshops on the developed draft PRM plan of Kebribayah rangeland system for 58 members from the Kebribayah rangeland council, worked administration office, and Keeble administrations to support rangeland land management stakeholders in validating and endorsing key prioritized activities in the draft PRM document.