The Impacts of Upstream Damming of the Omo River on Flood-Retreat Agriculture and Food Security Among Dassanech Agro-pastoralists, Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia

The Omo River is mainly considered a lifeline for the Southern Ethiopia lower Omo valley pastoral and agro-pastoralist communities of the Dassenech, whose food security and livelihood system totally depends on it. The seasonal flooding and subsequent flood-retreat cultivation of the river basin provide a new, stable crop-harvesting season for both household consumption and market sales. This is why most scholars argued that the entire social, economic, livelihood, and socio-cultural practices of Dassenech villagers depend on the rise and fall of the Omo River. Despite this, upstream Omo River damming and associated large–scale agricultural investment, in the face of climate variability and change, as well as the commercialization of Dassenech agro-pastoralist land and water source ecosystems, have become critical concerns for their flood-retreat agriculture and livelihood systems. Throughout the study, the researcher employed an interpretativist epistemological paradigm along with a qualitative research method to explore and understand the phenomena from the study participants’ or actors’ own perspective, and to examine the world they experienced via key informant interviews, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and a case study with nearly 68 participants. So, this article aims to assess and analyze the impacts of upstream damming of the Omo River on flood retreat agriculture and food security among the Dassenech agro-pastoralists of the Lower Omo Valley in detail, and how it affects local agro-pastoralists’ survival systems in the face of harsh agro-ecology and climate change. However, the study findings reveal that the destruction of Dassenech pastoral and agro-pastoral communities, flood retreat agriculture swiftly produces and intensifies major humanitarian disasters, including drought, and recurrent occurrences of flooding disasters in the area, with widespread conditions of starvation, disease, and spiraling interethnic armed conflict between the tri-nation border region of the lower Omo valley region. This increased their vulnerability to the effects of food insecurity, due to the loss of their seasonal sources of grain products – flood retreat crop cultivation, as well as livestock grazing areas. Therefore, to ensure the well-being of human development in the area, maintaining the sustainability of local ecosystem functions is vital for local communities’ survival and resilience-building.