The Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP) is pleased to announce the publication of Economic Value of Livestock Loss on Pastoralists’ Livelihood: An Analysis of Ethiopian Pastoralist Households by NSSP Senior Research Assistant Margaret Abiodun Adesugba, in the Journal of Research in Agriculture and Animal Science (Vol. 2 Issue 7). The article was published in August 2014.
Abstract: This study estimates the value of livestock loss among Ethiopian Highland pastoralists using a method of valuation that explores their willingness to pay to prevent livestock loss should a disaster occur from the marginal productivities of the breeds that they keep. The theoretical linear household production model motivates the study since it explains households profit maximizing behavior given certain constraints. A normal linear model was estimated using Bayesian methodology with Gibbs sampling algorithm to get the marginal productivities of the two genetic resources namely; local and cross breed cows that the household use as animate inputs which is fundamental for the valuation exercise. Crossbred cows had higher marginal productivity than local breeds as expected. The value of economic loss from both the cross breed and local cows was calculated as $34,332,395,932.65 and $38,720,845,644.67 in 2012 value respectively. The amount of loss has a ripple effect that spreads from the household level to the National level and that the marginal productivities of the breeds that households keep influences the number of improved breeds that they own and also reflects the non-traded value.
