Shepherding Entrepreneurship value creation below the base of the pyramid in Pakistan

Abstract

Abstract

The study aims to assess the tradeoffs associated with landless shepherding entrepreneurs working below the bottom of pyramid in the case of District Malakand. We use a transformative worldview, to raise voice for their welfare and to safeguard their livelihoods through a proposed formalization process as objective of study. The study uses an inductive-qualitative research design in conjunction with 20 semi-structured interviews and two focal group discussions conducted at veterinary clinics and analyzed with grounded theory methodology. The findings suggested that informal shepherding, serve as mechanism of a variety of wild herbs and shrubs dispersal and act as vectors of zoonotic diseases. Their high animal stocking density coupled with unsupervised herding exert anthropogenic pressures on environment such as causing barren mountains which trigger landslides. In cases of supervised herding, the impact is mitigated by the presence of experienced herdsmen. Their transhumance creates traffic hurdles as well as make animals and public vulnerable to accidents due to their animal trespassing. These shepherding entrepreneurs have an innocuous presence but exhibit rent seeking behaviors during up and downland vertical mobility although we cannot blame sheepherder’s’ for all environmental issues. Overall, the study concludes that their advantages in terms of food security, employment generation and ecosystem preservation outweigh their associated disadvantages. The study contributes to a better understanding of socially excluded group and economically marginalized group of people with a transformative view to preserve their identity by way of recommending reforms for their formalization as a poverty alleviation mechanism below the base of pyramid.