Abstract
BackgroundBonga sheep is a mutton type breed with a long-fat-tail and better body weight at maturity. The breed is especially located in the Southwestern mid and highland land areas of Ethiopia. Currently, the breed was well known in Ethiopia and also its price is higher as compared to other sheep breeds in the country. However, empirical evidence is lacking on price determinants of the breed in Ethiopia. Therefore, this research aims at identifying sheep attributes and other factors that determine the market prices of Bonga sheep in Southwestern Ethiopia.MethodologyData from 300 traded sheep and sheep marketers were collected from five major sheep marketing centers in the Kaffa zone. A hedonic price model adjusted for heteroscedasticity was employed to analyze the observed price data.ResultsThe model result showed that the attributes of the sheep are important guiding criteria in price formulation. Among the attributes age, sex (male), colour (red), body condition (good), tail type (very fat) and absence of horn significantly and positively determine the sheep price. As well, market place (Gojebi and Bonga) near to big cities and season (holiday) and purpose of purchase are also significant determinants of bong sheep price out of the sheep attributes in Southwestern Ethiopia.ConclusionTargeting in systematic improvement of the significant attributes which are demanded by the market and establishment of a breeding program to make sheep improvement in a sustainable way. Besides, effort should be geared to transform the system into a market-oriented system using a value chain framework by improving access to market information.
Highlights
Sheep are mostly kept livestock by rural smallholders as a major component of farming in Ethiopia [1]
Targeting in systematic improvement of the significant attributes which are demanded by the market and establishment of a breeding program to make sheep improvement in a sustainable way
Effort should be geared to transform the system into a market-oriented system using a value chain framework by improving access to market information
Summary
Sheep are mostly kept livestock by rural smallholders as a major component of farming in Ethiopia [1]. In terms of breed compositions, about 99.81% of sheep in Ethiopia are indigenous breeds [2]. Of. There are different indigenous sheep production systems across different communities’ in Ethiopia [4]. There are different indigenous sheep production systems across different communities’ in Ethiopia [4] This underlines the need to characterize the breeding practices as bases for designing indigenous breed improvement strategies. The Bonga sheep were considered as the same breed as Horro sheep. A study by Edea [6] phenotypically characterized the breeds by considering different types of traits and confirmed that the Bonga sheep are distinctly different from Horro sheep.
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