Child labor, agricultural shocks and labor sharing in rural Ethiopia

The author studies the effect of an agricultural shock and a labor sharing arrangement (informal social network) on child labor. Albeit bad parental preference to child labor (as the strand of literature claims), poor households face compelling situations to send their child to work. This is, especially, true when they are hit by an income shock and face a binding adult labor constraint. The author used panel data from the ERHS and employed a fixed effects model to pin down causal relation between shocks, membership in a labor sharing arrangement and child labor. It was found that child labor is, indeed, a buffer stock. Though a labor sharing arrangement doesn't affect child labor at normal times, it helps households to lessen the pressure to rely on it when hit by idiosyncratic shocks. While almost the whole effect of these shocks is offset by participation in a labor sharing arrangement, the covariate shock is not. Even if this may well affect a child's academic performance, school attendance doesn't decrease. This differential effect of shocks on child labor in participant households might be because of the extra adult labor made available or due to mutual support that comes with these social networks. This paper is indicative of the importance of considering social networks in smoothing out consumption. Further, it highlights the difficulty to cope up with covariate shocks and hence, calls for development interventions that are particularly meant to address their impact

Milk yield performance of two and three breed crosses of dairy cattle in the central highlands of Ethiopia

Two and three way rotational crossing was carried out at the Holetta Research Center using the indigenous Boran (Bos indicus) and exotic dairy cattle breeds of Friesian and Jersey (Bos taurus). The Jersey was used as third breed, to produce three way crosses from Boran Friesian crosses. The Friesian was used as third breed for Boran cross Jerseys. All herds were allowed to graze 8 hours per day during dry seasons (September-June) and fed indoors during the wet season (July- August). Cows were hand milked twice per day and data were collected and recorded for each milking. A total of226 two way and 131 three way records were used to analyze lactation length, total milk yield, average daily milk yield and 305 days milk yield. Least square mean of 305 days milk yield for two and three breed crosses was 1827.00±40.68 and 1704.00 ±368 liters, respectively. Parity and calving season had marked effect on lactation length (P<0.05). Total milk yield was affected only by parity (P<0.05). Milk yield during 305 days lactation was affected by parity and exotic blood level. Cows with higher exotic blood level exceeded cows with low exotic blood levels for both crosses. Therefore, using three breed crossings accompanied with upgrading maintains heterosis achieved in two breed crossing and further improves with milk yield

Yelemat Tirufat: An Overview of the initiative and lessons of experience from selected livestock development interventions in Ethiopia

A national consultative Workshop on “Are We Ready for Yelemat Tirufat?”, financed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and organised jointly by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture, ILRI, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) and Land O’Lakes Venture37, was held on 24 and 25 December 2022, in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Enrolment in Ethiopia’s Community Based Health Insurance Scheme

In June 2011, the Government of Ethiopia rolled out a pilot Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI) scheme. This paper assesses scheme uptake. We examine whether the scheme is inclusive, the role of health status in inducing enrolment and the effect of the quality of health care on uptake. By December 2012, scheme uptake had reached an impressive 45.5 percent of target households. We find that a household’s socioeconomic status does not inhibit uptake and the most food-insecure households are substantially more likely to enrol. Recent illnesses, incidence of chronic diseases and self-a