Ethiopia loses $138 mln due to livestock mismanagement

October 20, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) said luck of quality, enough knowledge and luck of information that enable producers to Export animals is making the country lose 138 million US dollars every year.

According to the ministry, Ethiopia has great potential for increased livestock production, both for local use and for export. However, expansion was constrained by inadequate nutrition, disease, a lack of support services such as extension services, insufficient data with which to plan improved services, and inadequate information on how to improve animal breeding, marketing, and processing.

The high concentration of animals in the highlands, together with the fact that cattle are often kept for status, reduces its annual income and its economic growth.

The number of live animals smuggled to neighboring countries is high owing to the lack of a conducive network that connects pastoralists with traders.

Livestock production plays an important role in Ethiopia’s economy. Estimates for l987 indicated that livestock production contributed one-third of agriculture’s share of GDP, or nearly l5 percent of total GDP.

Hides and skins constituted the second largest export earner, averaging about l5 percent of the total export value during the period l984/85 to l988/89; live animals averaged around 3 percent of the total value of exports during the same period.

Ethiopia’s estimated livestock population of about 78.4 million in l988 was believed to be Africa’s largest. There were approximately 31 million cattle, 23.4 million sheep, l7.5 million goats, 5.5 million horses and mules, l million camels, and 57 million poultry.

Livestock was distributed throughout the country, with the greatest concentration in the highlands, where more than 90 percent of these animals were located. The raising of livestock always has been largely a subsistence activity.

(ST)