Indigenous Sheep Production System in Eastern Ethiopia: Implications for Genetic Improvement and Sustainable Use

Authors

  • Helen Nigussie "Ambo University"
  • Yoseph Mekasha
  • Solomon Abegaz
  • Kefelegn Kebede
  • Sanjoy Kumar Pal

Keywords:

Agro-pastoral, constraints, mixed crop-livestock, pastoral, special attributes and sheep

Abstract

Most of the sheep exports (live animal and mutton) are from eastern lowlands of Ethiopia due to the fact that mutton from these lowland sheep has special merits in the Middle East countries. Both local and export market for mutton and live animals has been increased. However, productivity and the levels of foreign exchange earnings from sheep are much lower than would be expected. Hence there is a need to improve the productivity of sheep. Therefore, this survey was conducted to understand exisiting sheep production systems and identify major constraints as a prerequiste to develop sustainable genetic improvemnt strategies for indigenous sheep in eastern Ethiopia. The study areas were selected based on the potential for  sheep  production in three production systems namely, mixed crop-livestock, agro-pastoral and pastoral systems. Reconnaissance survey, group discussion and interview with structured questionnaire were used to collect data from 270 households (90 from each production system).

The average number of sheep per household in the present study was 58.6±3.29 with significantly higher flock size in pastoral system. Natural pasture, fallow land and crop residues were the major feed resources available in the study area. Average age at sexual maturity, age at first lambing, lambing interval were 7.24±1.74, 13.8±0.14 and 8.58±0.14, respectively even though, there was a significant difference among production systems. Feed shortage (0.31), drought and water scarcity (0.19) and disease prevalence (0.13) were identified as major constraints. However, index intensity and ranking have varied across production systems. Drought (0.47), water scarcity (0.33) and feed shortage (0.38) were the most important constraints and ranked first in pastoral, agro-pastoral and mixed crop-livestock system, respectively. Significant difference among production systems in most parameters considered in the current study indicating the need for specific interventions with respect to the production systems. The relatively large sheep flock size and higher contribution of sheep to the livelihood suggests that introduction of carefully planned and pertinent genetic improvement strategy through the involvement of the community is likely to have good chances of success. However, major constraints limiting sheep production need to be addressed along with the genetic improvement. 

Author Biography

Helen Nigussie, "Ambo University"

Lecture, department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and veterinary medicien, Ambo University

PhD student (Animal Breeding and Genetics), School of Animal and Range Sciences, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Haramaya University

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Published

2015-03-06

How to Cite

Nigussie, H., Mekasha, Y., Abegaz, S., Kebede, K., & Pal, S. K. (2015). Indigenous Sheep Production System in Eastern Ethiopia: Implications for Genetic Improvement and Sustainable Use. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences, 11(1), 136–152. Retrieved from https://asrjetsjournal.org/index.php/American_Scientific_Journal/article/view/603