Environmental and Social Impact Assessment - Gibe III

Gibe III – Environmental and Social Impact Assessment 300 ENV R CS 002 C - A9003099
5.3.7.1 Livestock Population
The livestock resources of Weredas are composed of cattle, sheep, goats, equines (donkeys, horses and
mules), poultry and beehives. With the exception of few introduced improved poultry breeds as well as
improved beehives almost all the livestock are indigenous. The livestock population within the project
weredas is shown in Table 5.38. As shown in the table, among the different livestock species of the Weredas,
cattle rank first (920,509) followed by poultry (957,258) and sheep and goats (331,963) population.
However, the number of pack animals (84,848) and beehives (75,304) are relatively smaller in the Weredas.
Types of
Animals
Table 5.38: Livestock Population of the Affected Weredas
Kindo
Koyisha and
Didaye
(Affected
Kebeles)
Gena
Bossa
Loma Soro
Omo
Shelek
o
Boloso
Soro
Kacha
Birra
Misha
(Konteb)
Yeme Omonad
a
Cattle 23,533 49,630 21,060 143400 90284 132678 3394 194276 51386 210868 920,509
Sheep and goat 9,120 15,921 9,360 51750 20669 16629 5368 73591 32717 96837 331,962
Pack animals 562 3821 350 10890 3708 2805 2839 30698 3114 26061 84,848
Poultry 15,427 33,821 10,000 235,000 55337 84636 6120 287550 52005 177362 957,258
Beehives 1023 - - - 5202 - 1687 16611 9517 41264 75,304
Though livestock are an integral part and play an important role to the mixed crop livestock production
system, the production and productivity of the indigenous livestock is very low. In general, low production
and productivity of the indigenous livestock is primarily associated to the low genetic potential, poor
nutrition and inadequate health, breeding and marketing services.
5.3.7.2 Livestock Feed Source
Majors feed sources are primary the communal natural pastures, aftermath grazing and crop residue. Small
individual plots of grazing land around homesteads are use for milking cows and young calves. Cattle are
usually grazed in herds of about 100 heads representing the cattle of about 20 households.
Generally, in Ethiopia all land belongs to the Government, though using rights of grasslands may be either
under governments, communal or private responsibility. However, in the case of future reservoir area grazing
land is mostly government owned and although there are also communally owned. However, there is no
privately owned grazing land within the future reservoir area. In general terms most of these grazing
resources are not in good conditions.
There is wide variation in the availability of different feed types in all the weredas around the reservoir area.
Natural pastures are available for livestock throughout the year and communal pastures are grazed for most
parts of the year without rest. The biomass is abundant during the wet season and a few months thereafter.
However, in times of feed shortage during the dry months of the year, animals are taken, except milking
cows and young calves, to the lower altitude closer to the Omo River where water and pasture is available
and with the risk of Tsetse infestation. In these areas farmers move their cattle only in times of the lowest
risk into this area. With the beginning of the rain, when the occurrence of trypanosomiasis increases, farmers
take back their livestock from the rivers to their permanent villages.
The other source of livestock feed is obtained from crop residue of various food crops including cereals,
straws, stalks, hauls from pulse crops and oil crops. Crop residues are stored and fed to animals during the
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