THE PATTERNS, DETERMINANTS AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE PASTORAL HOUSEHOLDS SEASONAL MIGRATION: THE CASE OF ITANG SPECIAL DISTRICT, GAMBELLA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The pastoralists use seasonal migration as the key handling strategy for the various forces in Itang specail district. These pastoral households seasonally migrate with their herds between the woodlands and Baro-river bank in the district. As such, the study was aimed to assess the patterns, determinants and the opportunities of the pastoral households seasonal migration in the study area. Then, the multistages sampling techniques were employed primarily purposive, stratified and simple random sampling. Similarly, the mixed of quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 100 selected pastoral households in two kebele by Focus group discussion, key informant interview, observation, questionnaire interview and documents analysis. The mean, standard deviation, percentage and frequency were used to summarize the data while, chi-square and independent sample t-test were used for proving the groups difference. In the mean time, the binart logit model was used to estimate the main factors that influence seasonal migration. The seasonal migration result showed that about 57% of the pastoral households have been migrated seasonally during the last reference period in the study area. These pastoral households have been migrated between December-February, June-August, September-November and March-May and migrated between rural-rural, urban-rural and rural-urban areas in the study area. The binary logit model results found that the occupation, herder perception, market distance, livestock water distance, credit access and livestock holding size influenced the pastoral households seasonal migration in study district. At the areas of origins, the pastoral households have faced the recurrent conflict, inadequate physical infrastructures, insufficient non-farm developments, water resource deficit and prevalent of livestock diseases in the study area. At the areas of destinations, the pastoral households have obtained the increasing livestock products, increasing resilience, promoting social cohesion and retaining rangelands in the study area. As a result, the pastoral households seasonal migration becomes the stresses and shocks handling strategy that needs not to be neglected in the pastoral areas. Accordingly, the concerned organizations and communities need to eliminate the pushing forces of seasonal migration in order to strengthen the existing opportunities across the study district.