RANGELAND CONDITION IN PASTORAL AND AGRO-PASTORAL AREAS OF SOUTH-EAST ETHIOPIA: A COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE-BASED ASSESSMENT

The use indigenous community knowledge in evaluating and sustaining the range land resources has often been overlooked. This paper presents a community knowledge -based assessment undertaken with the objective of assessing the community’s perception towards current rangeland condition and utilization in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of south east Ethiopia. A multistage sampling method was used where five representative woredas were purposively selected. Peasant Associations (PAs) were stratified into pastoral and agro-pastoral based on their livelihood, and ten PAs were randomly selected from which 5% of the household heads were chosen for interviews. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and descriptive statistics. Results showed that the mean family size in pastoral and agro pastoral areas was 7.71 and 7.32, respectively. Both pastoral and agro-pastoral systems varied (P<0.001) in terms of their livestock ownership. 88.29 % of the respondents from the pastoralists and 68.07 % from the agro-pastoralists responded that natural pasture is the major feed sources for livestock. Feed shortage was the primary challenge to livestock production followed by drought in pastoral and agro pastoral systems, respectively.92.16% and 66. 67% of the respondents in pastoral and agro pastoral categorized the current rangeland condition as poor, respectively, and the driving forces for the change in rangeland condition were indicated as agriculture, over grazing, recurrent drought, bush encroachment and deforestation. In both production systems, range land condition deteriorated due to agricultural expansion, overgrazing, recurrent drought, bush encroachment and deforestation, where the impact of agriculture is more sever in agro pastoral system.