Goat Production and Distribution Pattern in Ibadan/Ibarapa Zone, Oyo State

Abstract

The availability, population, and distribution of goat at the system level are of great concern to the livestock policymakers. Most often, policy formulation and implementation on goat production had been faulty without meeting the desired objectives. Little information does exist concerning the distribution of goat production at the system level in the Ibadan/Ibarapa zone of Oyo state. Hence, this study on the mapping of goat production and distribution in the selected area was undertaken. A three-stage sampling technique with 270 sampling population was used. Six Local Government Areas (LGAs) with a high prevalence of crop-livestock production system, three villages per LGA and fifteen respondents per village were purposively selected. Distribution pattern of goat population (Tropical Livestock Unit, TLU) was appraised with spatial analytical tools following standard methods. The Global Positioning System (GPS) was used to locate the population of farmers and appreciate the spatial distribution of goat production among farmers in the study area. A GIS (Geographic Information System) is a computerized database management system for capturing, storing retrieving, manipulating, analyzing and displaying spatial information. Ibarapa East LGA had the highest TLU (37) for Goat when compared with Egbeda, Ido, Ona-ara, Akinyele and Oluyole LGA with TLU of 30, 20, 6, 4 and 2, respectively. The availability of abundant crop residues and feed resources in Ibarapa area coupled with a large expanse of land encouraged goat production activities as observed in Ibarapa East, Egbeda and Ido LGA. The lower TLU observed in Ona-ara, Akinyele and Oluyole LGA can probably be due to the urbanization in those locations which has adversely affected goat production. In conclusion, using the spatial analytical tool of GIS, various activities of the goat production can be monitored, assessed and designed to meet market intervention.