Could banking livestock capital even assist small towns?
Yes. The Boran and the small towns in the rangelands are increasingly interdependent. To the extent that economic development of small towns is constrained by lending capital, banked livestock wealth may have important implications for development of small-scale industries in the urban sector. Conservative calculations suggest that if every wealthy and middle-class household in the study area banked from one to three male cattle each year this would generate about US$ 1.7 million annually from the sale of 14500 head. This represents only a modest percentage of the total male inventory. Animals would, however, have to be traded out of the system for the initiative to help stabilise cattle population dynamics and contribute to creating a sustainable yield scenario. 9. How should interventions be implemented? Interventions should be primarily directed to deal with two population phenomena: (1) the long-term trend (see above) and (2) inter-drought cycles, usually lasting 10 years or less,
