2018 Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 1-15
The purpose of this research was to study in the Tigray highland of Ethiopia 1) to understand the change in the land utilization, the grazing patterns, and the change in the number of livestock, in light of the recent natural and social environmental changes, 2) to analyze the decrease in the number of livestock and its contributing factors, and 3) to discuss that the decrease in the number of domestic animals has a negative influence to the nutrition intake of local farmers. The field research while staying with a total of eight households and the survey questionnaire on a total of 14 households were conducted in September 2016 and July 2017, and the study on the farmer’s nutrition was also performed in March 2015 in the study area. From the imperial era through the socialist era, most of the land was still made up of grasslands and forests, which were available for grazing and logging. Each household raised from 10 to 30 cattle, making them rich financially and nutritionally. With the increase in population in the democratic era, however, there was a shortage of farmlands, and the grasslands and forests rapidly shrunk as more and more those communal lands was developed into farmlands. The grasslands and forests that had been used for grazing year-round shrunk even more when the government expanded the areas of seasonally-closed grazing land, prohibited grazing lands and protected forest lands. Furthermore, there was a shortage of herd boys who are in charge of grazing once schooling began in the villages. As a result, the number of livestock raised by a household began to dwindle. Since the farmers were only able to raise a few cattle, they could no longer obtain milk throughout the year, which led to a decreased consumption of milk products. The milk product’s contribution to their nutrition has become limited. The decrease in the amount of feed resources and the shortage of herd boys limited the number of livestock that could be raised by each household, and will mostly likely continue to be a major contributing factor in limiting the subsistence of the farmers in Tigray.
