Description of the study areas
The study was conducted from November, 2018 to May, 2019 in three districts namely (Asayita, Dubti and Chifra), which are Located in the administrative zone one of Afar Region, Ethiopia. The Afar Pastoral Region is located in northeast of Ethiopia between 39° 34’ to 42° 28’E longitude and 8° 49’ to 14° 30’ N latitude (Figure 1). The region shares common international boundaries with Eritrea in the northeast and Djibouti in the east and it is characterized by an arid and semi-arid climate with low and erratic rainfall. Rainfall is bi-modal throughout the region, with a mean annual rainfall below 500 mm in the semi-arid western escarpments and decreasing to 150 mm in the arid zones to the east. The altitude of the Region ranges from 120 m below sea level in Danakil depression to 1500 m above sea level. Temperatures vary from 20°C in higher elevations to 48°C in lower elevations. The human population of Afar region is 1.5 million in which the majority are pastoralists who largely depend on livestock production for their livelihood. There are about 1.9 million Afar breed cattle in Afar Region, of which 90% of the cattle are managed under pastoral production system and the rest 10% in agro-pastoral production system (ANRS, 2010).