Traditon and transformation

The societal and economic development in Oman since 1970 have profoundly transformed the lives of rural communities in the country’s highland regions. Increasing rural-urban migration and off-farm activities, the dependence on the purchase of food and feed stuffs on local markets as well as changes in land use practices threaten the continuation of the traditional oasis agriculture of the Al Hajar mountain range. To assess the effects of ongoing transformation processes on the pastoral goat husbandry in selected oases in the central Al Jabal al Akhdar highland region, this thesis presents quantitative and qualitative data on the impact of goat grazing on species composition, plant cover and biomass of the ligneous and herbaceous vegetation on mountain pastures, determines live weight gain and reproductive performance of goats of different types of farms and models potential revenues from goat husbandry for alternative herd management. In feeding trials, the potential of locally available feed stuffs for improving nutrient and energy supply to goats and for conserving the natural fodder resources by reducing their intake during grazing is tested. Options for maintaining an ecologically and economically sustainable agriculture at the scale of individual farm households, oases settlements and the Al Jabal al Akhdar region are discussed.