Drought characteristics and pastoralists’ response strategies in Korahey zone, Somali regional state, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Recurrent drought has deteriorated the ecosystem, eroded and jeopardized livelihood assets of pastoralists general in Ethiopia and specifically in the Korahey zone. Therefore, this study was undertaken to characterize the drought and to identify adaptation and coping strategies employed by the Korahey pastoral community as responses to drought. Standardized precipitation indexes (SPI) of annual rainfall were calculated for 35 years by using Precintcon Package R Studio to characterize drought in the study area. Household surveys and interviews were also done on 216 randomly selected sample households. In addition to these, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and field observations were also used and the data were analyzed by using multiple response tests on Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The results revealed that near-normal SPI values were recorded in the years 1984–2014 and drought frequency has increased particularly starting from 2015. The result of SPI shows that severely dry and moderately dry SPI values occurred in 2015–2016 and 2017, respectively. Severe drought observed causes negative impacts on the livestock which is the livelihood base of most pastoralists in the zone. The result revealed that mobility, herd diversification, livestock off-take and the increasing number of drought adapting livestock were adaptation strategies whereas herd splitting, household splitting, labor migration to town and charcoal and fuel-wood selling were coping strategies to drought. Additionally, emergency aid, veterinary services, safety net and credit services were also some of the drought response mechanisms given by NGOs and the government. The result indicates that drought response strategies desired by pastoralists were being constrained by inadequate capital of households (81.2%), lack of affordable credit services (72.9%) and conflicts (70.8%). The study provides valuable information which helps strategies for local capacity building and emphasis increasing attention to pastoralists at the policy level. Generally, the findings suggest that policies and development interventions in pastoral areas are critical complements to the existing pastoral strategies for increased household resilience to drought.