Performance of the livestock sector

10. In general, the performance of Ethiopia's livestock sector is disturbingly poor. It does not even compare favourably with the average performances of East Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Comparative data on the total output level and growth rates of selected commodities are provided in Table 1.

Table 1. Estimated total output ¹ and average growth rates of major livestock commodities.

Commodity	OUTPUT
	Volume (000 MT)		Annual Growth (%) 2
	Ethiopia	East Africa	Eth.	E. A. 3	SEA 3
Beef	214 (21) 4	1020	0.4	3.1	2.4
Muitton	86 (36)	237	2.2	3.0	3.1
Cow milk	595 (14)	4323	1.1	4.3	3.5
Hides & skins	70542 (28)	251020	0.5	2.5	2.1

¹ 1985
² 1975-1985
³ E.A. = East Africa; SSA = sub-Saharan Africa
⁴ Figures in brackets are percent shares of Ethiopia's output in East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda).

Source: Anteneh (1989).

11. The significant share of Ethiopia in East Africa's total output is certainly attributable mainly to the size of the livestock population rather than productivity as will be observed below. The growth rates, particularly of beef and cow milk, vis-à-vis the average human population growth rate of 2.9% becomes a major cause for concern in Ethiopia.

12. Similarly, as Table 2 shows, the yield levels for meat and milk are much lower in Ethiopia than the average figures for East Africa and SSA.

Table 2. Average yields for beef, mutton and cow milk, 1985

Commodity	Ethiopia		East Africa		SSA
	(Kg)
	1	2	1	2	1
Beef	100	8.2	127	14.6	130
Mutton	10	3.7	12	3.5	12
Cow milk	219	23	343	63	329

¹ Per animal slaughtered or per cow milked
² Yield per animal in total herd/flock.

Source: Anteneh (1989)

13. A marked difference is observed between the yield per productive animal and the yield per total herd/flock. The latter is believed to be more representative of average performance. Both methods, however, vividly show the existing wide gap in the yield of cow's milk between Ethiopia and the East African countries as a whole. Also the difference in beef yield becomes more pronounced when yields per animal in total herd or flock are compared. Exceptionally, Ethiopia's mutton yield per animal in total flock compares favourably with East Africa's average mainly because of the low performance of Somalia (1.2 kg) and Tanzania (2.7 kg) in this respect.

14. The major constraints facing the livestock sector are: feed, genetic structure, animal health and other technical factors such as water; socio-economic and institutional (land tenure, economic policies such as price and trade policies, shortage of investment capital). Many of these will be touched upon in the subsequent discussion.

15. Institutions involved in livestock development are peasant associations (PAs), service cooperatives (SCs), producers' cooperatives (PCs), parastatals and the private commercial sector. As at September 1989 there were 17015 PAs, with 4.8 million household members; 3518 SCs encompassing 15310 PAs (about 4 million household members) and 3316 PCs throughout the country (Adera W. Cooperative Dept., MOA, Personal communication). The following section briefly reviews the state of livestock development in each institution.