Impacts of Drought and Conventional Coping Strategies of Borana Community, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was undertaken in southern Ethiopia to evaluate impacts of drought and pastoral’s coping strategies in southern Ethiopia. With multi-stage sampling method, 199 respondents’ households were selected. The survey results show that drought has severely affecting the livestock resource basis of the pastoralists. Especially, the water sources for livestock; pond and deep well; dried out during pick drought season besides the degradation of rangeland resources. Beyond pastoral focus strategy, however, revision of pastoral policy need a special attention to reduce the susceptibility of pastoralists to recurrent drought. Especially, development of viable pastoral strategy for drought need strong and urgent linkage with other development and research actors to invert the socio-economic and ecological devastation of the drought.

Keywords: Borana, coping strategies, destocking, Drought, drought impact, pastoral, trade off