Valuation of Goat Traits in Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Livelihood Systems in Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Pastoralists and agro-pastoralists depend heavily on their livestock. The animals serve as source of food, cash income, inputs for crop production, security, store of value, and social recognition. Ethiopia is endowed with enormous livestock population which is considered to be the largest in Africa. Most of the livestock population is in the midlands and highlands where crop-livestock crop production is the mainstay of rural livelihoods. However, livestock play a more pronounced and crucial role in the dry lowlands of Ethiopia where pastoralism and agro-pastoralism are the predominant livelihood systems.