Farming in the Borana Rangelands of Southern Ethiopia: The Prospects for Viable Transition to Agro-Pastoralism
Wassie Berhanu and David Colman
Abstract: This paper examines the challenges and prospects of the recent tendency of pastoralist resource shifts to farming in the Borana rangelands of southern Ethiopia. Farming among the Borana pastoralists is a new livelihood strategy adopted in response to the crisis of mounting population pressure and deterioration in pastoral food security. The determinants of Borana farming behaviour are analysed using the double-hurdle model. Both the poor and the rich participate in farming but it is the latter that increasingly gain more the benefits of mushrooming individual rangeland enclosures. The level of cultivation is higher among the middle wealth pastoralists though it is essentially an increasingly a matter of economic status. Farming is a less attractive, non-pastoral livelihood option for female-headed households. Despite the current widespread process of expansion, there is a limit to the practice of farming as a sustainable livelihood strategy in the Borana rangelands.