Husbandry Practices, Reproductive and Production Performance of Indigenous Goats in Ahferom District of Central Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

The study, aimed to investigate indigenous goats’ husbandry practices, productive and reproductive performances, and constraints, was conducted in Ahferom district of central Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Two peasant associations from midland and one from lowland in the district were purposively selected based on their potentiality. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select 147 smallholder goats’ keepers. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to gather data. Focus group discussions (FGDs) were also held with knowledgeable farmers and key informants. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software Version 28.0. In the study area, goats were kept by farmers for sale (52.5%), home consumption (24.4%), saving (13.1%), manure (10%), and prestige (1.0%) in the midland. Nevertheless, goats were kept for sale (33.3%), home consumption (33.3%), saving (12.5%), manure (16.6%), and prestige (4.1%) in the lowland. Goats were mainly dependent on browsing plants in both wet and dry seasons. The overall sources of water in the study area were water wells (40.1%), hand pumps (32.7%), and ponds (27.2%). Most (89.8%) farmers used separate houses for their goats. The mean amount of milk produced/day from a lactating goat was estimated to be 0.2 liters. The overall mean litter size, age at first kidding and kidding interval were 2.350.59, 13.010.96 months and 7.440.76 months, respectively. Based on the FGDs with knowledgeable farmers and key informants, “litter size varied from parity to parity and increased as age advanced. At first, the litter size in most cases was single, increased to twins in middle age, and then remained constant after fourth and fifth parity”. Feed/land shortages, drought, diseases and parasites, inadequate extension support, predators and water shortages in descending orders were the most important identified problems. Designing sustainable improvement programs calls for understanding the husbandry practices and reproductive performance of goats in the study area