The Economics of Pastoralism: A Case Study of Sub-Saharan Africa

Livestock is regarded as a capital good on the basis of its ability to reproduce itself and thus create an income for its owner, this being in the form of animals and consumption goods. The system of herding practiced particularly in East Africa is subjected to economic analysis, with the result that the prestige factor of hoarding cattle is considered secondary to the economic motivation. Growing human and animal populations have not been accompanied by an increase in rangeland, precipitating, it is conjectured, a boom and crash sequence depending on the vagaries of the weather. The problem stems, in the author's eyes, from the unrestricted access to pasture. This is to be tackled by the increased off-take from herds and the institution of property rights which protect the land from overgrazing. The possibility of forced sedentarization is rejected, as this has proved counterproductive in the past. However, it is understood that making nomads contribute through taxes is problematic; taxes on selling and exporting cattle are understood to be regressive, and do not include those who do not sell animals. However, the contribution of the pastoralists to the national income is greater than it would be if the nomads were settled as laborers or unemployed in the city; furthermore, the health of pastoral nomads is almost invariably better than that of city or village dwellers. Sedentarization is also connected with increased birth rate, which puts further pressure on the soil as the demand for carbohydrate production increases, leading in some cases to greater degradation of the land. -from Blench and Marriage Annotated Bibliography