Major Constraints of Veterinary Services Delivery System and Its Solution in Pastoral Areas of Ethiopia

Abstract

Livestock are essential assets for livelihoods which help to move out of poverty, as a way into lucrative markets, as a source of foreign exchange, as important socio-economic resources, and as means of saving. The Ethiopian livestock sub-sector is the largest source of foreign exchange earning which contributes much to the total national economy. Even though the livestock sub-sector is an important contributor to the national economy, its development is hampered by different constraints. The main constraints to livestock development in Ethiopia are diseases, nutrition, traditional husbandry and marketing problems. Animal diseases which are widespread in all agro-ecological zones of the country cause major economic and social losses to the livestock owners. The impacts of these diseases are devastating in pastoral and remote areas, where the lives of the communities entirely depend on their livestock. The pastoral area of Ethiopia is characterized by large land size, limited development and poor infrastructure. Animal health and veterinary services are presently not accessible to the vast majority livestock owners in pastoral areas of Ethiopia. The few public clinics present are located in major towns and provide services mostly to cattle owners residing around these towns. Problems such as highland based veterinary services, poor private service, drug resistance; weak veterinary drug quality control and weak disease reporting system, unorganized research and community services are major constraints that affect the quality of veterinary service delivery system in pastoral areas of Ethiopia. Therefore, the probable solutions which help in improving the quality of veterinary services in the pastoral areas of Ethiopia includes encouraging privatization of the services, community based animal health programs, promoting mobile veterinary clinic and organizing research works and implementing community services in collaborative way at regional level. 

Keywords: Ethiopia, Drug, Pastoral areas, Quality, Veterinary service.