The civil war and widespread state of insecurity resulted in a mass exodus of people and animals from the confines of the Somalia political entity to other Somali areas in eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya. In addition there were up to 2 million internally displaced persons in the early 1990s mainly in the south and from the inter riverine area between the Shebelle and the Juba: many of these had to sell or eat their livestock to survive. Livestock output from Somalia proper therefore dropped in the aggregate. This effect was almost certainly compounded by reduced reproductive performance, slower individual animal growth rates and higher morbidity and mortality. 3.45 As many households and large numbers of animals returned to Somalia as a result of increasing security it is likely that “compensatory” (a well known livestock term in particular with reference to individual animal growth) functions allowed an upsurge in reproductive rate, in growth performance and in reduced mortality due to some regrowth of natural feed and a relative absence of disease organisms on areas that had not been used or only lightly used by livestock over a period of perhaps five years. The effect on reproductive performance is fundamental as pastoralists and other livestock producers invariably attempt to maintain the breeding females in the herd at the expense of other classes of stock in times of severe adversity.

There are no reliable production data for livestock from recent years but it can generally be assumed that output is low in relation to potential. Milk production is of considerable importance not only for subsistence consumption in the pastoral sector but also for household use in the urban and peri–urban areas. Some quoted percentage offtake rates are 1.6 for camels, 11.3 for cattle, 23.3 for goats and 27.3 for sheep. About 33 percent of total offtake is estimated to be consumed by producers, a further 17 per cent by other internal consumers and 50 percent is exported. Many important livestock diseases have been diagnosed. Major among these are rinderpest, CBPP, PPR and Rift Valley fever. Livestock marketing is mainly a private sector affair through dealers and local markets. Livestock are used to supply local requirements, are shipped to various countries in the Arabian peninsula, and trekked or transported to markets in Kenya and Ethiopia. Livestock also enter Somalia through the borders with Ethiopia and Kenya.

calorie intake by the people as only 45 percent of calories are obtained from cereals. estimates the output of livestock products for 1996 were 46,000 tonnes of beef, 49,000 tonnes of goat and sheep meat, 560,000 tonnes of milk and 21,000 tonnes of hides and skins. These production figures are equivalent (on a somewhat tenuous basis in view of fluctuations in human population numbers due to movements in and out of the country) to an availability of 8.2 kg of beef, 8.8 kg of small ruminant meat and 100 kg of milk per person per year.

The nomadic population of Somalia depends on livestock for their survival. They are the main source of food and income for them. However, changing environmental conditions affect animal productivity. Long journeys of transport and insufficient hygiene measures mean that products are often no longer perfect. The livelihoods of many people are at risk.