Different rangeland management systems to reduce livestock feeding costs in arid and semi-arid areas in Jordan

The increasing livestock population combined with feed shortage leads to continuous pressure on the marginal land demanding it to produce feed, and consequently it leads to a significant rangeland degradation and desertification. The objective of this research is to evaluate different institutional arrangements for rangeland management in relation to the cost of hand feeding. Descriptive statistics and cost functions were used to estimate the differences in the total feed cost under different management practices. There are four rangeland management systems practiced in the arid and semi-arid areas in Jordan. These are the traditional tribal systems, cooperative management, governmental reserves and private rangeland. The rangeland cooperatives proved to have lower feeding costs and sustainable use of resources compared to open access and governmental reserves. The collective management of rangeland disallows the rangeland user to behave in an opportunistic way. The results show that the herders integrating crop and livestock had a lower probability to graze in the governmental reserves and they relied more on their own feed resources. The fencing and other overhead costs of governmental reserves could be saved and directed towards building a new institutional form of rangeland management based on the participation of the local community in order to achieve sustainable rangeland resources.