People benefited from
Community-based breeding programs
Women empowered through
sheep-fattening businesses in Ethiopia
Hectares of rangelands under
improved governance, management, and /or restoration practices
In Tunisia, agrosilvopastoral systems where livestock grazing and pasture are combined with cereal cropping, trees, and shrubs are under threat from loss of natural vegetation and biodiversity. ICARDA works with local organizations in North Tunisia to replace previously introduced ‘exotic species’ like acacia and saltbush, with well-adapted indigenous species such as Carob trees, herbaceous legumes, and perennial grasses that require less water and maintenance to thrive. We underpin these efforts by training local communities in water harvesting and conservation agriculture. ICARDA also plans to establish nurseries through public and private partnerships to scale up seed production for these native species.
In 2023, through the Pastoral Living Landscape Initiative, we collaborated with Tunisian farmer communities to introduce grazing resting periods and subsidy-free grazing to aid rangeland regeneration. We supported this work by enhancing the capacity of farmers, extension agencies, research, policymakers, and the private sector to help test and validate ICARDA innovations, ensuring their relevance and effectiveness.
Women who depend on livestock rearing as a vital source of income often face challenges in accessing rangeland resources and equitable participation in decision-making processes related to rangeland management. In 2023, ICARDA published a study highlighting the obstacles that both male and female rangeland farmers in Tunisia face in securing adequate support, such as agricultural extension and credit. The study emphasized that women, due to sociocultural norms, often bear additional labor burdens such as collecting forages or weeding crop fields and have less access to productive resources like land, training, and information. As women constitute 45% of farm workers in Tunisia, including them in land restoration and management policies is crucial.
A second paper and policy brief published in 2023 further stressed the importance of public policies to enhance women’s participation and resilience, particularly in the context of climate change. Recommendations include promoting women’s full and effective participation and leadership in the design, implementation, and evaluation of policy actions for climate resilience from global forums to a local level.
In Ethiopia, expanding agriculture to meet growing food demand often marginalizes pastoralists to areas with poor-quality soils that do not nourish livestock sufficiently. In 2023, ICARDA assisted farmers in rural southwestern Ethiopia in establishing the Boka Shuta Sheep Fattening Cooperative to boost feed-producing capacity. The cooperative provides mechanized feed-chopping services that improve feed quality, resulting in weight gain of up to 70% in sheep. A trade fair further connected members with private businesses to launch the selling of processed feed products, and four new rural enterprises started supplying materials and distributing feed, creating new jobs and income streams for rural communities.
To guide policymakers and researchers engaged in the design of goat breeding programs, ICARDA also published research on which pastoralists prefer goat traits. While in the past, non-native ‘exotic’ breeds with higher milk and meat yield have been introduced, the study showed that smallholder rural farmers prioritize resilience to climate change stresses like drought and heat, which are more prevalent in indigenous breeds, especially in well-designed breeding programs that include such needs from the start. In Ethiopia, Jordan, Tunisia, and Mali, ICARDA is also testing DTREO, a new digital tool that supports community sheep and goat breeding programs by collecting data that supports more informed decisions on selecting superior males for breeding and helps with access to new market opportunities.
