Baila
Tarekegne is selling one of his father’s
cows at the weekly market. Here Baila heard a
rumour that the rains were bad in neighbouring
areas where sorghum and maize are grown, and
people expect a low harvest. If this is true,
the prices of staple food will rise quickly in
his area, and that’s always bad news…
Baila
Tarekegne is 19 years old and in charge of herding
the family’s animals and milking the cows.
He has been around animals his whole life, and
he knows the effects of poor rains and pasture
on his family’s cattle and goats. This
year the rains in his area were not very good—unfortunately
this has happened more frequently over the last
few years. Later this year Baila plans to bring
the herd to the rangelands around Mago National
Park located further away. He expects to find
good grazing land in those areas.
Baila is from the Benna tribe. With 2 oxen, 60
cattle and a few goats, his family owns quite
a large herd, and they are considered better-off
in their community. Even if the price of sorghum,
maize, sweet potato and other foodstuffs are
high, Baila’s family has enough money to
buy them. They can always sell a few more animals.
Extra sources of income include the sale of honey,
butter and sometimes wild fruits.
Baila is not sure if he will be able to make
a living from animals like his father does. “My
two older brothers are struggling. They don’t
have a lot of cattle and goats—which is
normal when you are young like they are. It takes
time to build up a herd of your own. But their
herds don’t ever seem to get bigger. Every
gain through the birth of calves and kids is
offset by the sale of animals to cover their
families’ expenditure.”
To cut the costs of buying staple food, Baila’s
older brothers have started to concentrate more
on farming. They borrow their father’s
oxen and plough large plots of land, where they
plant maize and sorghum. Baila thinks they work
really hard: “These days they spend far
more time on their land than they do on herding
their animals. But last time I looked at my brothers’ farms,
the crops weren’t really flourishing.”
With a small herd, a poor harvest and high prices
in the market for maize and sorghum, Baila’s
brothers will face some difficult times in the
future.
| INIDICATORS
OF EMERGING CRISIS |
CROP
FAILURE If maize and sorghum harvests are poor
in neighbouring agricultural and agro-pastoral
zones, Baila’s community is faced with
high staple food prices, and thus with high expenditure.
LIVESTOCK PRICES Pastoralists depend on livestock sales for their cash income,
but prices inevitably fall when supply of livestock is high.
LIVESTOCK DISEASES Epidemics of livestock diseases, like trypanosomiasis, blackleg
and anthrax have an impact on Baila’s family’s herd, which is their
life savings. The family’s ability to cope with a crisis can be diminished
for years.
EROSION The mountains surrounding Baila’s area are showing an increasing
number of gullies, that deepen over time. These gullies drain out rainwater that
previously would have been spread widely. Both pasture and crops grown in the
area suffer from the lack of water. |
| POSSIBLE
INTERVENTIONS |
PRODUCT
DIVERSIFICATION Apart
from livestock sales,
butter and honey are
income sources for Baila’s family. However,
the quality of his products is quite low, and
therefore the price he gets for them is also low. Baila’s family would
benefit from training in the processing and handling
of honey and butter.
MARKET ACCESS Baila’s family and all other pastoralists in his area would
be helped if there were traders in the area with enough financial capital and
storage facilities. This would support the inflow of staple food in the area
and the outflow of livestock and livestock products.
LIVESTOCK DISEASE CONTROL A programme to control the most common livestock diseases
in the area would help people in Baila’s community to build up their herds. |
|
