Uganda needs proactive policy on pastoralism
Nov 26, 2006
Last week we marked the first ever ‘Uganda Pastoralists Week’ with a street match, donors’ roundtable discussion, workshops, exhibition and a cultural gala in Kampala. The purpose was to recognise pastoralist communities of about seven million people in 26 districts.
By Oscar Okech
Last week we marked the first ever ‘Uganda Pastoralists Week’ with a street match, donors’ roundtable discussion, workshops, exhibition and a cultural gala in Kampala. The purpose was to recognise pastoralist communities of about seven million people in 26 districts.
Conventional thinking recommends that pastoralists should stop mobility, settle into modern farms, privatise land, keep fewer animals and promote crop cultivation.
New thinking on pastoralism
Great thinkers of the 1990s, have found out that pastoralism is a way of life, a scientific practice, a rational and efficient low-intensity livestock-rearing production system suited to the fragile environment with patchy resources.
It’s not by accident that pastoralists straddle the semi-arid areas, from Ankole to Karamoja, Turkana, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea etc. Their mobility is not a backward practice but a rational adaptive strategy.
They depend more on livestock because of unreliable rainfall.
While livestock can be moved when rains fail in one area, crops can’t. Mobility also prevents overgrazing and environmental degradation since livestock is distributed over a large mass of land. Besides, there are grass species and salt licks that are scattered over space and time and can only be accessed through mobility.
Learning from experience
In Iran, from 1910-45, the government used gunships to bomb the Qashqa’I into settlement and even tried to change their language, culture and dressing by force so that they could disappear completely as a tribe. It failed. Attempts have been made to change the lifestyle of the Karimojong but without success.
Where pastoral lands were converted into private ranches in Ankole, they became unsustainable. During severe droughts livestock is moved out to Lake Mburo. Those who can afford to keep them in one place do so but at a very high capital cost.
But most pastoralists are poor and can’t afford that. Yet poverty reduction strategies should focus on the majority.
Secondly, the ranches carved out of most pastoral lands have displaced poor Ankole pastoralists and these have ended up in Teso and Tanzania in search of water and pasture. Denying pastoralists their large expanses of land and attendant mobility will increase poverty and lead to their eventual extinction.
Global trends in pastoralism
New thinking is shifting towards supporting pastoralists within the context of their mobility. Examples are the Ameridina and Navalo in North America, the Saami in Sweden, the Raika, Bedouin, Reben and Quashga’I in the Middle East, and the Mongol in Mongolia.
Policy options
Under the Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture, which is focused on producing for the market, it possible to have commercialised pastoralism. There has been less investment in pastoralist production systems.
New and innovative economic production initiatives should compliment but not replace the pastoralist production system and lifestyle.
We should focus on increased investment in mobile schools, mobile paravets and nurses, cooperatives, availability of locally manageable water sources, small scale enterprises, and harnessing isolated pastoral leadership structures to modern institutions.
That way, pastoralists’ development will evolve internally. Some may become cowboys on horseback and others mobile commercial herders driving cars.
The Karimojong and other pastoralists can develop within the context of mobility. But we need to first change our attitude towards pastoralims.
The writer is the Executive Director of Africa Leadership Institute
Last week we marked the first ever ‘Uganda Pastoralists Week’ with a street match, donors’ roundtable discussion, workshops, exhibition and a cultural gala in Kampala. The purpose was to recognise pastoralist communities of about seven million people in 26 districts.
Conventional thinking recommends that pastoralists should stop mobility, settle into modern farms, privatise land, keep fewer animals and promote crop cultivation.
New thinking on pastoralism
Great thinkers of the 1990s, have found out that pastoralism is a way of life, a scientific practice, a rational and efficient low-intensity livestock-rearing production system suited to the fragile environment with patchy resources.
It’s not by accident that pastoralists straddle the semi-arid areas, from Ankole to Karamoja, Turkana, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea etc. Their mobility is not a backward practice but a rational adaptive strategy.
They depend more on livestock because of unreliable rainfall.
While livestock can be moved when rains fail in one area, crops can’t. Mobility also prevents overgrazing and environmental degradation since livestock is distributed over a large mass of land. Besides, there are grass species and salt licks that are scattered over space and time and can only be accessed through mobility.
Learning from experience
In Iran, from 1910-45, the government used gunships to bomb the Qashqa’I into settlement and even tried to change their language, culture and dressing by force so that they could disappear completely as a tribe. It failed. Attempts have been made to change the lifestyle of the Karimojong but without success.
Where pastoral lands were converted into private ranches in Ankole, they became unsustainable. During severe droughts livestock is moved out to Lake Mburo. Those who can afford to keep them in one place do so but at a very high capital cost.
But most pastoralists are poor and can’t afford that. Yet poverty reduction strategies should focus on the majority.
Secondly, the ranches carved out of most pastoral lands have displaced poor Ankole pastoralists and these have ended up in Teso and Tanzania in search of water and pasture. Denying pastoralists their large expanses of land and attendant mobility will increase poverty and lead to their eventual extinction.
Global trends in pastoralism
New thinking is shifting towards supporting pastoralists within the context of their mobility. Examples are the Ameridina and Navalo in North America, the Saami in Sweden, the Raika, Bedouin, Reben and Quashga’I in the Middle East, and the Mongol in Mongolia.
Policy options
Under the Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture, which is focused on producing for the market, it possible to have commercialised pastoralism. There has been less investment in pastoralist production systems.
New and innovative economic production initiatives should compliment but not replace the pastoralist production system and lifestyle.
We should focus on increased investment in mobile schools, mobile paravets and nurses, cooperatives, availability of locally manageable water sources, small scale enterprises, and harnessing isolated pastoral leadership structures to modern institutions.
That way, pastoralists’ development will evolve internally. Some may become cowboys on horseback and others mobile commercial herders driving cars.
The Karimojong and other pastoralists can develop within the context of mobility. But we need to first change our attitude towards pastoralims.
The writer is the Executive Director of Africa Leadership Institute