Spatial Analysis of Livestock Production Patterns in Ethiopia

The livestock sector is a large contributor to the Ethiopian economy as well as a mainstay in the livelihoods of many Ethiopians. It comprised 11 percent of national GDP and 24 percent of agricultural GDP between the years of 1995/96 and 2005/06 (NBE 2005/06). Livestock production and markets vary substantially across space in Ethiopia due to a variety of reasons including topographical variations, market access, water availability, and population characteristics. This study links smallholder livestock population data from the Agricultural Census (2001/02) and data from the annual CSA Agricultural Sample Survey (2005 to 2008) with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data in order to assess livestock population, market access, and grazing land. We utilize existing studies of travel time (Schmidt and Kedir 2009) to calculate shares of livestock (cattle, sheep and goat) populations within defined travel time thresholds of major markets. In addition, we attempt to provide greater insight of changes in available grazing land given increasing human and livestock population pressure.