Goro Bekeksa

Gurre Bakaksa is one of the 93 woredas in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Liban Zone, Gurre Bakaksa is bounded on the south by the Ganale Dorya River which separates it from the Liben Zone, on the west by Guradamole, on the north by the Oromia Region, on the northeast by Elekere, and on the southeast by Cherti.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 65,271, of whom 38,370 are men and 26,901 women. While 4,107 or 8.01% are urban inhabitants, a further 32,652 or 63.69% are pastoralists. 99.99% of the population said they were Muslim. This woreda is primarily inhabited by the (Gurre, Ashraf, Raito and Dawed of Gaadsan subclan) clans of the Somali.^[1]

these District consists of fifteen kebeles which are of:- 01 kebele, 02 kebele, Asha'ad, Koyo (Biyo-badan), Joog-deer (Jookey), Gifis (af-goye), harafama, Hagar-weyne, Watiti (Kabhan), Hoofi, Du'o kora, War-gudud, Hagar-mokor, Tuur, and Hargedeb.^[2]

Gurrebakaksa Woreda Livestock Population

Unpublished assessment carried out by Somali regional state, bureau of livestock resource and development estimated that, the animal population of Somali region is 48,761,021 and biggest share is taken by shoats (34,368,887) followed by cattle (7,000,533) and camels (6,565,914) and 232,752 chickens among other livestock species. Of which Gurrebakaksa Woreda have the proportion of overall 797,300 livestock populations including but not limited to; Cattle (177,650), Goats (255,430), Sheep (302,385) and Camels (50,790) (LRPDB, 2017).^[3]

Despite the large number of livestock in the woreda, the sector is characterized by low productivity. The lower productivity is attributed to high disease incidence and parasite burden, low genetic potential of indigenous breeds, inadequate management, poor nutrition and reproductive performance. Among these constraints, diseases have numerous influences on productivity and fertility of herds. The effect of livestock diseases could be expressed in terms of losses due to mortality and morbidity, loss of weight, slow down growth, poor fertility performance and decrease physical power.

Recently, SRS in general and Gurrebakaksa woreda, pastoral development office in particular is planned to implement a wide range project called “Dhaqo oo Dheefso”. It aims improving livestock production and productivity through disease control and prevention, introduction of improved livestock production system.

2. SWOT ANALYSIS

2.1. Strength of Gurrebakaksa Woreda (Intrinsic Strength)

The district livestock office has 56 veterinary and 42 para-veterinary professionals, 12 health posts including 3 non functionals, and 3 livestock markets in which hargadab and hagar mokor markets are main collectors. Other opportunities in the area may include.

• Huge livestock population and dependency of livestock products
• Different natural resource like river, borehole
• Manpower
• Border to Oromia Bale Zone and Afdher Zone of Somali region
• Infrastructures like Asphalt concrete construction, tele-service, electric
• Private sector involvement in agriculture and livestock sector
• Presence indigenous knowledge on different agricultural production system

2.2. Weakness (Internal to the district)

• Poor knowledge attitude and practice regarding agricultural production.
• Lack of cold chain and refrigerators
• Absence of veterinary laboratory and clinics
• Less focus on livestock production and productivity
• Still old system of production
• Poor utilization of natural resource
• Lack of mixed farming system
• Deforestation
• Poor budget and lack of external fund

2.3. Opportunity (External to the district)

• Market access in all direction (With Oromia and other part of Somali region)
• Political commitment from the region, the so-called “Dhaqo oo Dheefso” project.
• Availability of manpower in the region
• Sense of competition with neighboring Zones and/or region for increase livestock production and quality animal products.

2.4. Threats (External to the district)

• Uncontrolled movement of livestock;
• Disease outbreaks
• Poor progress from mega projects like road construction, electric facility
• Ignorance in some of developmental projects. E.g “Dhaqo oo Dheefso”.
• Poor involvement of different NGOs, especially international NGOs

3. Conclusion and recommendations

Gurrebakaksa woreda is endowed with large amount of livestock population, wide area of rangelands and lies in strategic spot for livestock production and marketing. However, due to poor production systems, disease burden, concurrent droughts and feed shortages, lack of veterinary services and low capacity of animal health workers plus deprived knowledge of pastoralist in the woreda. Therefore, changing community mindset through awareness creation, training, establishing demonstration sites may improve involvement of enhanced livestock production. Furthermore, construction and capacitating veterinary health service and Private veterinary pharmacies could have resulted enhanced production and productivity. These goals can be obtained by increasing number of vet professionals and conducting continuous trainings, and overall improvement in veterinary service centers.

References

This page was last edited on 23 February 2024, at 20:58