The Impact of Camel Transportation on the Livelihood of Pastoralists: In Berahle Woreda, Afar Regional State of Ethiopia

The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of camel salt transportation service on the livelihood of pastoralists in Berahle woreda, Afar regional state of Ethiopia. A cross sectional primary data of 250 sample households (including 115 camel owners and 135 camel non-owners) was used for analysis. Propensity score matching (PSM) method was implemented to capture the livelihood contribution of camel salt transportation service for the camel owner pastoral households in the study area. Four matching algorithms (Nearest- Neighbour, Kernel, Radius and Stratification) were used for estimation and their result was consistent which shows their robustness. Income, livestock ownership and fixed asset formation of the households were used as livelihood indicators to compare the livelihood differences between the camel owner and non-owner households. Accordingly, a positive and significant difference was found in two of the livelihood indicators i.e., income and livestock ownership, but not fixed asset holdings between the two groups of households. The paper has also tried to identify the main determinant factors influencing the camel rent decision of the camel owner pastoral households using ordered probit regression model. The result reveals that, literacy of the household head and number of camels owned by the household are the factors affecting household head’s decision to rent out his/her camels for other salt transporters or not. Another focus of the study was, identifying the main beneficiaries of the salt mine among the salt trade value chain participants and calculating the profit percentage share of the salt transporters, using descriptive statistics. Based on the analysis, the salt transporters were found to be the main beneficiaries among the salt trade value chain participants.