Jarso (Hararge)

Jarso is one of the woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraq (East) Hararghe Zone, Jarso is bordered on the south by the Harari Region, on the west by Kombolcha, on the north by the city of Dire Dawa, on the east by the Somali Region, and on the southeast by Gursum. The administrative center of this woreda is Ejersa Goro.

The altitude of this woreda ranges from 1050 to 3030 meters above sea level; Mount Gara Sirirta, Aybera, Kilisa and Bekekalu are amongst the highest peaks. Rivers include the Gideya. A survey of the land in Jarso (reported in 1995/96) shows that 19.3% is arable or cultivable, 1.7% pasture, 21.6% forest, and the remaining 57.4% is considered degraded or otherwise unusable. Khat, fruits and vegetables are important cash crops.

Industry in the woreda includes 11 grain mills employing 37 people, as well as 195 registered businesses including wholesalers, retailers and service providers; although chalk, kaolin, lead and coal are known in this woreda, none of these deposits have been mined. There were 18 Farmers Associations with 19,524 members and one Farmers Service Cooperative with 1092 members. Jarso has 36 kilometers of gravel and 62 kilometers of dry-weather road, for an average road density of 194 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers. About 19% of the urban and 4.8% of the rural population have access to drinking water.

The 2007 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 116,638, of whom 59,103 were men and 57,535 were women; 3,930 or 3.37% of its population were urban dwellers. The majority of the inhabitants said they were Muslim, with 98.27% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 1.52% of the population practised Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.

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