Livestock Husbandry and Economic-Sustainability of Small Farmers in Peri-Urban Areas: A Case Study from West Gojjam Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study attempts livestock husbandry and sustainability of small farmers in West Gojjam region, Ethiopia where a large number of livestock are reared due to the favorable climatic conditions. The mainstay of the population (those with holding of less than 3 ha) practices mixed crop-livestock farming. It discovers issues of the economic and gender profiles of livestock rearers and their engagement in different operations of livestock husbandry for economic sustainability. Systematic random sampling was applied technique to select 240 households from four micro geographical areas (kebeles) of peri-urban region on the basis of purposive sampling at the distance of 10, 20, 30, 40 km from central business district. The findings describe 51.6% contribution of females in livestock husbandry for barn and cleaning while men performed 71.5% marketing activities. More than 87% agricultural operations were done by men using livestock. The Animal husbandry contributes 60-70% income among the 51.25% households of small farmers. The growing of income by livestock per year was 6.1% during 2001-2011. However, ranching of goats and sheep was remarkable for high value added role (11%) during 2001-11. The study presents recommendations for efficient marketing system, well equipped transportation facilities to improve social-economic sustainability of small farmers.

Keywords: work equity, productivity by gender, economic viability and sustainability