Indigenous Goat Husbandry Practices and Its Production Environment in Case of South Western Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted in south western Ethiopia, with the main objective of describing indigenous goat husbandry practices and its production environment. For study, a total of 180 sampled households were employed for interview (questionnaire survey and key informative). Mixed crop livestock production system was a common type of farming system with large proportion of goat per household (13.5±0.55). The main purpose of keeping goat was to generate income followed by meat and saving. Communal grazing was the major feed source both in dry and wet season in the study areas. The most dominant housing system in the study area was separate (62.2%) followed by expansion of the main house (25%) and inside main house (12.8%). About 90.6% of the farmers were practiced castration at the age of 26.9±0.83 months in Meanit Goldiya and19.2±0.70 months in Guraferda districts. Disease, predator and feed shortage were the three most important goat production constraints in both areas. Therefore, based on the reason of keeping goats by farmers, the main breeding objective has been defined as increasing meat production (improve growth rate and conformation) across the studied areas. Thus, full utilization is needs to improve the husbandry practices, put in an application of suitable disease prevention system and applying forage development strategies and feeding system.