Sugar estates destroy Bodi pastoralism in Ethiopia

The article “Sugar industrialization and distress selling of livestock among the Bodi pastoralists in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley” by Fana Gebresenbet, published in Pastoralism 11:22 (2021), shows that the Bodi, a small agropastoral community in southern Ethiopia, are experiencing collective impoverishment and are selling their livestock out of distress. This is due to the rapid transformations unfolding in the Lower Omo Valley as a result of the government’s aggressive resource-extraction interests, related mainly to the building of the Gilgel Gibe III Dam on the Omo River and the establishment of large-scale sugar estates. These interventions sparked off increased insecurity and led to deterioration in food security and livelihoods among the Bodi. They are engaging in the market by selling off their animals as a way to cope with hunger, high incidence of animal disease and high rates of imprisonment of men. The Bodi also engage in rainfed and irrigated cropping and in wage labour as alternative sources of livelihood. The author argues that, to prevent further erosion of the Bodi’s livelihoods, it is necessary to address insecurity and the related sociopolitical outcomes, which lie at the heart of the Bodi’s impoverishment.

Posted on 15 May 2022 in Pastoralism & Extractives, Pastoralism & Marketing, Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism, Policy & Power, Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition