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GURREBAKAKSA DISTRICT PASTORAL DEVELOPMENT OFFICE
Mahad Mohamed1 and Arte Abdi Duale2

1.    Jigjiga University, Ethiopia.

2.    Gurrebakaksa Pastoral Development Office, Gurrebakaksa.

1.1 Background
Gurrebakaksa woreda is among the earliest woredas established in somali region of Ethiopia. It was once part of Afder Zone’s 8 woredas, before the previous Somali egional administration led by President Abdi Mohamud Omer relocated to Liben Zone. Gurrebakaksa 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. Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this woreda has a total population of 65,271 individuals.

1.2 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Unpublished assessment carried out by Somali regional state, bureau of livestock resource and development estimated that, the animal population of Somali region is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) (LRDP, 2017).

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.

2.1. 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

2.1. 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

2.2. 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.

2.3.Treats (External to the district)

 * Conflict
 * 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.

4.    REFERENCES
Census 2007 Tables: Somali Region Archived 2012-11-14 at the Wayback Machine, Tables 2.1, 2.4, 3.1 and 3.4.

LRDP (2017). Estimated Number of Livestock By Species, Zone And Wereda In Somali Region. Unpublished report.