The Rwandan government's ongoing reconfiguration of the agricultural sector seeks to facilitate increased penetration of smallholder farming systems by domestic and international capital, which may include some land acquisition (‘land grabbing’) as well as contract farming arrangements.

The major economic activity for pastoralists is animal husbandry. The harshenvironment in which herders raise their livestock requires constant mobility toregulate resource utilization via a common property regime.

Communal land use system has existed in pastoral Afar (as in many other pastoral areas) since time of immemorial accommodating the interests of different user groups.