Livestock-water interactions

In the highlands of Ethiopia, livestock fulfil the fundamental functions required by the mixed crop-livestock farming systems. Besides, they provide valuable products significantly contributing to livelihoods of the farming community. One of the limiting factors to livestock production, in north western Ethiopia, is access to water resource. Given the rain-fed agriculture prevailing in this area, the seasonal water scarcity during the long dry season severely affects availability of feeds. Worsening the situation, overstocking problem continues to be an additional challenge leading to overgrazing and degradation of communal grazing lands. Of all agricultural activities, livestock production is generally considered as water intensive system. It is, thus, imperative to evaluate livestock productivity from the perspective of water use efficiency to help comprehend strategies that are useful for increasing water productivity and, from the perspective of grazing resource management to improve its sustainability. The specific objectives of the present study were to: provide insights on the methodology of livestock water productivity (LWP) estimation using water footprint approach and relate it to life cycle assessment (LCA) framework, assess LWP from empirical evidences across different land-use mosaics of the mixed crop/livestock production systems in Gumara watershed, investigate the impact of collective management of communal grazing land on lessening the problem of land degradation and sustaining pasture production, and identify the determinant factors influencing sustainable use and productivity of natural pasture ecosystem pertaining to collective management of communal grazing lands.