The Effects of Commercial Orientation on (Agro) Pastoralists’ Household Food Security: Evidence from (Agro) Pastoral Communities of Afar, Northeastern Ethiopia

Derib Woldeyohannes Benti, Worku Tuffa Biru and Workneh Kassa Tessema
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Derib Woldeyohannes Benti: Department of Rural Development, College of Agriculture, Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita Sodo 138, Ethiopia
Worku Tuffa Biru: Center for Rural Development, College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa 1178, Ethiopia
Workneh Kassa Tessema: Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa 1176, Ethiopia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-27

Abstract: Commercialization has been increasingly promoted for (agro) pastoral communities as an intervention to improve incomes and food access. Using households from rural Afar, this study examines the food security effects of the livestock commercial orientations of (agro) pastoralists by employing propensity score matching (PSM) procedures. The results show that, despite the fact that the market production of (agro) pastoralists is stressed by a broad range of factors, identified as cultural, infrastructural, and production risks, participation in livestock sales significantly decreased the severity of food insecurity in both the household food insecurity access score (HFIAS), and the reduced coping strategy index (rCSI) measures. However, the results failed to find consistently significant effects via the per capita consumption expenditure measure, in which case, the ‘subsistence’ and ‘commercially’ oriented groups are alike. Yet, given the factors depressing market production, properly addressed with policy measures, the income generated from livestock sales improved the welfare of (agro) pastoralists, at least by some (the HFIAS and rCSI) of the livelihood indicators. This highlights the importance of combining market infrastructure investments with culturally sensitive policy measures in order to sustain the traditional livestock husbandry of (agro) pastoralists. Therefore, in order to sustainably improve the food security situations in (agro) pastoral areas, the promotion of market production through the broadening of market access for both sales and purchases is important.

Keywords: (agro) pastoralists; livestock marketing; commercialization; food security; Afar; Ethiopia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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