IMPERIAL ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT LIVESTOCK AND MEAT BOARD

Abstract

Seasonal stock movements are found in most parts of Tigre, highland livestock moving to the lowlands between December= and April and lowland stock moving sometimes to the highlands between July and October,, This traditional stock movement is an important factor in planning development, pointing to certain difficulties in controlling stock population in any one part, and the difficulties in prevention of animal disease,In the traditional highland agricultural areas of Tigre province the system of land holding is communal. The rights in land are not enjoyed exclusively by individuals but shared collectively by a community by reason of common descent from a family founder called an Akni Abat who originally pioneered the area, and by kinship with other members of the community. Present landholders use the land by reference to the fact of their descent from the Akni Abat and cases have occurred where land has been successfully claimed by tracing back descent for twenty generations * Land in which the rights are not enjoyed exclusively by individuals but shared collectively by a community, are known as rist lands* The rist system does not apply to those parts of Tigre, mainly in the E^.st, occupied by those who are purely pastoralist nor to areas very recently occupied, such as the lowlands area of Shire„ In the pastoral areas the land nominally belongs to the Government* A fuller description of the system in the Shire lowlands is given later. Within the rist system some modification called Jiraf Gotet or Gebar Meret has been evolved to counteract absenteeism in the system of land holding. This modification is directed at ensuring that the land belonging to the community is used by resident members, A full description of the land tenure in Tigre province can be found in a report of the Ministry of Land Reform and Administration , The relevance of the situation as regards this project is to show that in the highland areas To settle existing resident farmers in the project area on satisfactory tenure terms# Five thousand of these will be settled by the project in this phase of the development,, (2) To settle the maximum number of additional farmers from the over—crowded highlands (Tigre and Eritrea) in ’the project area on satisfactory tenure terms, thereby relieving land pressure in the over-crowded highlands. Most of those settled in this way will be people who already migrate to the area annually during the crop season to farm there temporarily# Seven thousand of these migrants will be settled in this phase of the development