Sustainable grazing options for enhancing accelerated scaling ups and impacts of agroforestry innovations in Ethiopia

The culture of livestock free grazing has been practiced for long time in Ethiopia. However the livestock free grazing has been posing a major threat on agroforestry because the livestock has been freely grazing trees and crop residues on farm which led to deforestation soil degradation and nutrient depletion and environmental degradation at large. Hence the free grazing contributed to low adoption and scaling up of agroforestry in the country. This in turn led to declining overall agricultural production systems. To address these challenges the Ethiopian government developed and implemented several rural development strategies and programmes which aimed to restrict free grazing practices and to improve tree-croplivestock production systems. However the initiatives failed to address the problem of free grazing. To understand the context specific challenges and sustainably address the existing free grazing problem while facilitate accelerated adoption and scaled up of agroforestry a study was done in Ethiopia through conducting field assessments interviews and discussions with farmers religious and informal institution leaders policy makers and experts; reviewed different documents and complied the opportunities and gaps of the existing policies institutions and technologies on grazing systems and management; and experimental trials were also done to test and identify best grazing technologies and management options. The result showed that there are major constraints on the existing policies and institutions including lack of grazing land use policies less clarity on tree tenure security weak institutional set up weak coordination among key stakeholders and top-down extension approaches without considering varying resources and contexts at different levels. The study also identified technological challenges including shortages of livestock feed and better breeds limited availability of feasible and best-fit technologies coupled with a culture of keeping high number of livestock per household and production systems. This is aggravated by lack of knowledge and improved skills coupled with low motivation of local experts contributing to low adoption and scaling up of agroforestry. The study concludes that free livestock grazing problem can be sustainable addressed through understanding and building to existing farmers circumstances and varying contexts. This helps to design best fit sustainable grazing options and improving informed decision-making for enhancing adoptions and scaling ups of agroforestry practices in the country. This study underlines that sustainable grazing options are very important for improving agricultural production and livelihoods of smallholder farmers and creating resilient ecosystems and societies in Ethiopia.

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