Assessment on Problems Associated with Artificial Insemination Service in Dairy Cattle in Two Selected Districts of West Hararghe Zone

Misgana Bekele

doi:10.7176/jhmn/86-02

Abstract

Artificial insemination is recognized as the best biotechnological technique for increasing reproductive capacity and has received widespread application in farm animals. A cross sectional study was conducted from November 2016 to March 2017 with the objective of assessing the problems associated with artificial insemination service in dairy cattle in two selected districts of West Hararghe zone and coming to applicable recommendations. In this study, a structured questionnaire was used and (400) smallholder dairy farmers, (8) Artificial Insemination Technicians and (17) animal health and production professional were included. Retrospective data was also included in the study to evaluate the situation of AI service in the study site. According to the study result, 152(38%) of the smallholder dairy farmers have got AI service regularly without interruption while 248(62%) of them do not due to discontinuation of service on weekends and holidays (39.4%), unavailability of AITs (25.65%), lack of inputs (20%) and long distance (14.87%) with statistical significance between districts (P<0.05) for shortage of Artificial Insemination Technician. Conception failure (43.9%), unavailability of artificial insemination technicians (29.8%), Death or Dystocia (15.6%) and insufficient animal health centers (57.5%) are among the major constraints of AI delivery system raised by dairy farmers. About (61.25%) of the dairy cattle owners were not satisfied by the AI service delivery while (38.75%) were satisfied with the overall AI service with statistically significant difference among the districts (P<0.05). The AITs and animal health and production professionals also mentioned absence of collaboration between stakeholders, absence of inputs, lack of responsible body and lack of on job trainings and incentive as constraints of the AI service in the area. Generally, the questionnaire survey indicated that artificial insemination service faces several constraints and requires urgent corrective measures by all stakeholders to change the situation and attain the intended result of improving the production and productivity of dairy cattle in the study area in particular and in the country in general. Keywords: Artificial insemination, Dairy Farmer, Problems, District, Oda Bultum, Doba DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/86-02 Publication date: February 28 th 2021

Highlights

Cattle production together with the production of other livestock sectors has been known to be an important component of the agricultural sector
51.5% and 58.5% of respondents in Oda bultum and Doba districts respectively get the service at the AI station while 48.5% in Oda bultum and 41.5% in Doba districts get Artificial Insemination service at their farm through phone call to AI technicians
Even though the on farm AI service is higher in Oda bultum district as compared to Doba district, there was no statistical significant difference between the two study areas (P=0.159)

Summary

Introduction

Cattle production together with the production of other livestock sectors has been known to be an important component of the agricultural sector. Despite the country’s high livestock holding, great potential and sustained development efforts to get the subsector moving forward, productivity has remained low and still subsistence oriented in Ethiopia. Artificial insemination has become one of the most important techniques ever devised for the genetic improvement of farm animals. It has been widely used for breeding dairy cattle as the most valuable management practices available to the cattle producer and has made bulls of high genetic merit available to all (Webb, 2003)

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Conclusion