Ethiopia is believed to have the largest livestock population in Africa. This livestock sector has been contributing considerable portion to the economy of the country, and still promising to rally round the economic development of the country. It is eminent that livestock products and by-products in the form of meat, milk, honey, eggs, cheese, and butter supply the needed animal protein that contribute to the improvement of the nutritional status of the people. Livestock also plays an important role in providing export commodities, such as live animals, hides, and skins to earn foreign exchanges to the country. On the other hand, draught animals provide power for the cultivation of the smallholdings and for crop threshing virtually all over the country and are also essential modes of transport to take holders and their families long-distances, to convey their agricultural products to the market places and bring back their domestic necessities. Livestock as well confer a certain degree of security in times of crop failure, as they are a “near-cash” capital stock. Furthermore, livestock provides farmyard manure that is commonly applied to improve soil fertility and also used as a source of energy. Due to the very important role that the livestock sector plays in the economy of the country, formulation of development plan regarding the sector is indispensable. It is therefore imperative that livestock development plans should be formulated on the basis of reliable statistical data, and hence, timely and accurate livestock data are required for the formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of development plan and program in the sector. These livestock data can be generated usually using surveys and censuses. In this regard, subsequent surveys and a solitary agricultural census have been carried out by the Central Statistical Agency (CSA) to make available data on livestock though they were not comprehensive. The 2007/08 Annual Agricultural Sample Survey was also
conducted to produce these same data so as to keep hold of continuity and update users in general. In this report: estimates of livestock that include cattle, sheep, goats, draught animals (horses, mules, donkeys and camels), poultry and beehives were made based on the information obtained from the holders within the sampled agricultural households in rural sedentary areas of the country as to the reference date (November 11, 2007 or Hidar 1, 2000 E.C.) and reference period (November 11, 2006 to November 11, 2007 or Hidar 2, 1999 E.C. to Hidar 1, 2000 E.C.). The report comprises the results obtained from the livestock survey as well as brief discussions made on the results. The survey results at regional and zonal levels for the sedentary rural areas are presented in Statistical Tables 3.1 - 3.30. The standard errors (SE) and coefficients of variation (CV) are given in Annex Tables 1 – 10, for some variables.