Livestock destocking have been started in 1980s by NGOs and state agencies (Slaughter destocking related to meat supply during drought Commercial destocking is recent, started to be practiced in Southern Ethiopia in Borena with NGOs and government, The main strategy used was facilitating link between traders and the drought affected community or providing fund to the cooperatives The two approaches in destocking are: commercial and slaughter destocking (Both types of destocking are familiar in Borena & practiced since 2005/6 by NGO & Government

1. COMMERCIAL DESTOCKING IN PASTORAL COMMUNITY
OF BORENA
Daniel .Temesgen & Wendesen. Gulelat
1

2. BACKGROUND
 Livestock destocking have been started in 1980s by
NGOs and state agencies (Slaughter destocking related
to meat supply during drought
 Commercial destocking is recent, started to be practiced
in Southern Ethiopia in Borena with NGOs and
government,
 The main strategy used was facilitating link between
traders and the drought affected community or providing
fund to the cooperatives
 The two approaches in destocking are: commercial and
slaughter destocking (Both types of destocking are
familiar in Borena & practiced since 2005/6 by NGO &
Government 2

3. BACKGROUND
 Currently CARE and SAVE US have been practicing it
since 2011
 In Borena areas of Ethiopia, commercial destocking is
seen as one of the best solutions to many problems of
the Borena pastoralist
 A team of six from CARE Ethiopia, CARE Nederlands,
PFE and Group URD have conducted assessment in
commercial destocking from Nov 4-8, 2011
3

4. BACKGROUND
The objective of the assessment is to address the
following questions
”?” How can government, NGOs, Private sector and
community work together to arrive at a stage where
commercially destocking is a viable alternative?
”?” What practices & systems are in place?
4

5. METHODOLOGY
 The assessment started with interview of stakeholders in
Addis Ababa
 The assessment was conducted in four selected
Weredas and kebeles
 All stakeholders at Zonal and Wereda level were included
in the assessment
 The field assessment was followed by Zonal stakeholders
workshop
 Both secondary and primary sources of information were
collected at all the stages of the assessment
 For primary source used individual in-depth interview and
focus group discussion techniques were used 5

6. THE STATUS OF DROUGHT AND RESPONSE 2011
 Both the Ganna and Hagaya rain failed, the drought was
so long
 The intervention focused on includes Vet. service,
fodder supply, water rationing and food support
 Commercial Destocking has been planned by the Zonal
Taskforce however could not be implemented and there
was a little response from other stakeholders
 Number of cattle died estimated about 300,000 (zonal
DPPA) even if there are some contradictions in number
 The number of destocked livestock is less than 1,000
(less than 1%) 6

7. BENEFITS OF COMMERCIAL DESTOCKING BASED ON
THE GROUP DISCUSSION OF BENEFICIARIES
Enhanced the drought risk reduction through :
1. Cash transfer to the drought affected community:
 Was used to purchase food to sustain the food shortage
of the family during drought
 The cash was used to protect the remaining stock
specially the breeding stock enhanced quick recovery
from the drought
2. Efficient utilization of critical resources during
drought
 Rescued animals by selling them before the drought
affected them more
 It strengthen the effectiveness of other livestock
interventions (Vet. Service, water and feed
supplementation) 7

8. ACTORS IN COMMERCIAL DESTOCKING
(1) Government at different level involved in destocking
through linking drought affected community with traders
and facilitating loan for private trades to participate in
CD. (Creating link between producers and suppliers)
Activities
 Awareness creation, mobilizing, providing loan
(incentive) or play facilitation and advocacy role
 Trades selection and sending (the zone facilitate the
implementations)
8

9. ACTORS IN COMMERCIAL DESTOCKING
(2) NGOs act in Commercial Destocking through different
programs or projects to stimulate commercial destocking
by mainly availing loans to the private traders or funds to
marketing or multipurpose cooperatives, (in 2011 in
Borena CARE & Save the children US)
(3) The Private sector: Involved in buying the livestock in
commercial destocking
(4) The Pastoralist community and their institutions has to
work with government, NGOs, cooperative and private
sector supplying livestock for destocking
9

10. CHALLENGES AND ISSUES
 The demand for export at the time of the destocking
determines the interest of traders to buy animals from
pastoral areas.
 The price control of government which was implemented
last year has contributed to reduction in commercial
destocking in 2011
 Commercial destocking requires a strong livestock
marketing system
 Lack of livestock holding grounds for cooperatives as
well as prior to the onset of drought affects the
effectiveness of commercial destocking
10

11. CHALLENGES AND ISSUES
 Poor infrastructure in pastoral areas limits the
commercial destocking to nearby communities
 Delay in the destocking initiatives which happened late in
the drought (delay in the funds)
 Long process in securing contingency(risk funds)
 Less amount of fund allocated for commercial destocking
 The mismatch of the traders and the pastoralists interest
(looking for better animal vs. selling of weaker animal )
 The price is not attractive for the community
 Lack of knowledge about the guidelines on commercial
11
destocking

12. CHALLENGES AND ISSUES
 The commercial destocking is not well recorded, it is
performed here and there
 The traders who are selected for commercial
destocking usually never show up- lack of follow up of
traders from the government side
 Commercial destocking at this stage involves multi-
actors with weak linkage causing implementation
difficult (complicate)
 The increasing price of feed supplement
 Weak linkage among the actors (Gov’t, NGO,
customary institutions, traders…etc) 12

13. CHALLENGES AND ISSUES
 The awareness is weak among the community
 Less in scale of operation as compared to the level of the
problem
 Corruption in cooperatives and other actors
 Limited government budget for coordinating the activity
 The focus of most actors this year was on livestock feed
supplementation and food support to the people it is few
NGOs which participate in commercial destocking
13

14. RECOMMENDATIONS
 It requires careful planning and quick action, strong
linkage, trust and commitment among the actors
 There are opportunities to improve linkages between
pastoralists and livestock traders during normal periods
and during drought.
 A strong, pre-existing livestock export trade drive
commercial destocking
 Commercial destocking should be integrated with the
normal live stock marketing not with drought time only
14

15. RECOMMENDATIONS
 Adequate contingency fund should be allocated
 Early warning information has to be effectively utilized
and reach the community in organized manner
 Linkage between cooperatives ( high land and lowland)
 The commercial destocking planning should be based on
the early warning information and assessments
 Enhancing the bargaining power of the pastoralists
 Feed processing plants in Borena zone (feed price
reduces) this facilitate commercial destocking
15

16. RECOMMENDATIONS
 Training ,capacity building, enhancing linkages among
the actors, strong marketing information system,
 Establishing institutional mechanism and create capacity
to lead and coordinate commercial destocking such as
strengthening linkage (the network), capacity building
coordinating and reporting
 Responses should match the scale of the problem
 There is a need to look for livestock skin and meat
processing in Borena
16

17. 17