Management Practices and Socio-economic Importance of Cart Equines: The Case of Bako, Sire and Nekemte Towns of Western Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted at Bako, Sire, and Nekemte towns in Oromia Regional State, Western Ethiopia, with the aim of assessing management practises and the socio-economic importance of working equines to the owners’ livelihood. About 43.3% and 70.8% of people relying on cart driving were young and householders, respectively. The majority (51.7%) of farriers use horses for cart- pulling, while 40.8% use mules and 5.8 farriers use both horses and mules at different times for cart-pulling. With agro-ecologic perspectives, 36 (90%) of farriers use mules for cart pulling in the lowland (hot) weather of Bako, while 29 (72.5%) and 31 (77.5%) of farriers, respectively, use horses at Sire and Nekemte towns, where the environmental temperature is moderate (mid altitude). The mean and standard deviation (in the bracket) of family size dependent on income obtained from cart- equine work were 4.15 (1.76), 4.19 (1.79), and 4.08 (1.73), respectively, at Bako, Sire, and Nekemte towns. The income (in Ethiopian Birr) that farriers were collecting per working day at Bako, Sire, and Nekemte towns was 76.25 (24.41), 92.43 (31.04), and 90.25 (31.25), respectively. This shows that the daily income of people working in the sector was very low. Housing management was poor, where about 46.22, 44.54, 5.88, and 3.32% of cart equines passed the nighttime roaming outside, in separate livestock houses, under open shade, and in an open barn or fence, respectively. Such situations could expose the horses to predation by hyenas. Thus, strategic training on cart-equine handling and cart management was recommended to improve cart-equine productivity and farriers’ income.