Sheep production systems and breeding practices of smallholders in western and south-western Ethiopia: Implications for designing community-based breeding strategies

Z Edea, A Haile*, M Tibbo**, A K Sharma***, J Sölkner**** and M Wurzinger****

Yabello Pastoral and Dryland Agriculture Research Centre, P.O.Box, 85, Yabello, Ethiopia
* International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA),
P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
a.haile@cgiar.org
** Food and Agriculture Organization for United Nations (FAO), P.O .Box 2223, Cairo, Egypt
*** Haramaya University, P.O.Box, 38, Haramaya, Ethiopia
**** BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences,
Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Vienna, Austria.

Abstract

An exploratory survey was conducted to understand sheep production systems and identify breeding practices, breeding objectives, and constraints as a first step towards developing breeding strategies for Bonga and Horro sheep breeds of smallholders in south-western and western Ethiopia. Data were generated through interviewing 229 (114 from Bonga and 115 from Horro) randomly selected sheep owners using a detailed structured questionnaire.

Results indicate that sheep are kept for multiple objectives with source of income being rated highest. Breeding was generally uncontrolled. Size, color and tail type were the most frequently reported traits in selecting breeding rams across the two sites; whereas size, color, tail size and twining rate were mentioned as traits given due emphasis in choosing future Bonga breeding ewes. Farmers consider size, color, pedigree and age at first lambing in choosing Horro breeding females. Adaptive traits such as tolerance to diseases and feed shortage were given low emphasis in selecting replacement stocks in both of the districts. The survey identified several constraints such as early disposal of breeding stocks, small flock sizes with only a few breeding males, uncontrolled mating, communal grazing in wet season and free roaming during dry season that make controlled breeding or mating very difficult. Traditional breeding practices such as sharing of breeding rams should be further strengthened. Considering the small flock sizes in both the sites, reasonable genetic gain demands the formation of breeder’s group (co-operatives) schemes. This in turn requires the full participation and long-term commitment of sheep keepers and other livestock development actors. To realize full benefits of a breeding strategy; approaches should be holistic with concurrent improvement in the non-genetic factors (disease resistance and feed efficiency) as well.

Key words: Bonga sheep, Horro sheep, Smallholders, Breeding practices, low-input production system, Ethiopia

Introduction

Ethiopia harbours a huge and diverse sheep population and this genetic diversity is a requisite for the present and future livelihoods of the large rural poor farmers (Abegaz 2007). Sheep are living banks for their owners and serve as source of immediate cash and insurance against crop failure especially where land productivity is low and unreliable due to erratic rainfall, severe erosion, frost, and water logging problems (Tibbo 2006).There is a need to improve sheep productivity through breeding, conservation and sustainable utilization to meet the protein demand by the ever increasing human population and to improve the livelihoods of poor livestock keepers and alleviate poverty among the rural poor dwellers. Presently, for sustainable genetic improvement and conservation of farm animal genetic resources, development of community-based strategies which take into consideration the need, knowledge and aspiration of local community are being advocated (Wollny 2003). Disregard of such components had led to low success of past livestock genetic improvement attempts in developing countries (Sölkner et al1998). This is because the success of any genetic improvement and conservation programme depends upon the action of livestock keepers who own, utilize and adopt breeds and adapt them to their needs. Further, designing and implementation of community-based breeding programmes require a good understanding of the production system and the alternative importance of the different constraints in the system; clear understanding of selected breeding objectives supported by the farmers and accurate methods of identifying the superior genotypes (Baker and Gray 2003). However, there is little or no information on sheep production system, breeding practices and constraints to design community-based breeding strategies for smallholder sheep keepers of Ethiopia in general and for Bonga and Horro sheep breeds in particular.

This work is part of an on-going project, initiated jointly by the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), University of Natural Resource and Applied Sciences (BOKU), and Agricultural Research Systems in Ethiopia to design community-based sheep breeding strategies. Thispaper reports results of the study undertaken to understand sheep production systemsand identify breeding practices,breeding objectivesand constraints as a first step towards development of breeding strategies for Bonga and Horro indigenous sheep breeds of smallholders.

Materials and methods

Study areas

The study was carried out in Adiyo Kaka (Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ RegionalStateof Ethiopia) and Horro (Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia) districts. These districts were chosen for the reason that they are known as the centre of distribution for Bonga and Horro sheep breeds, respectively.Adiyo Kaka falls within longitude of 36º47’E and latitude of 7º 26’N with altitude ranging from 500 to 3500 m. The temperature in the area can be as high as 36ºC and can also reach lowest value of 3ºC (SUDACA 2007).Horro district is situated within longitude of 36º47’E and latitude of 7º26’Nwith altitude ranging from 1800 to 2835 m. Kafficho and Oromo are the dominant ethnic groups in Adiyo Kaka and Horro districts, respectively. The prominent farming system is mixed crop-livestock production.

Sampling procedure and Data Collection

Relevant information was collected through interviewsconducted with randomly selected 114 and115 sheep owner farmers from Adiyo Kaka and Horro districts, respectively. The questionnaire was designed, pre-tested and modified before the commencement of the actual administration to check its clarity to respondents and appropriateness of the questions. General information list of FAO (2000) and Oromia livestock breed survey questionnaire (Ayalew et al 2004) were used as checklists in designing the questionnaire. The modified and finalized questionnaire was administered by staff from the Bonga and Bako Agricultural Research Centres. The questionnaire gathered information on socio-demographic characteristics of the households (age, gender, educational background, family size),livestock holding, flock characteristics(number and composition), purpose of keeping sheep, feeding, breeding practices, perceived important sheep diseases and reproductive characteristics.

Statistical analysis

The SPSS statistical computer software (SPSS for window, release 15.0 2006) was used to analyze the data. The data were presented mainly in the form of descriptive tabular summaries and chi-square or F-test was carried out to assess statistical significance or for particular comparison, as appropriate. An index was calculated to provide overall ranking of the purpose of keeping sheep according to the formula: Index = Σ of [3 for rank 1 + 2 for rank 2 + 1 for rank 3] given for particular purpose of keeping sheep divided by Σ of [3 for rank 1 + 2 for rank 2 + 1 for rank 3] for all purpose of keeping sheep. Similar indexes were calculated for ranking selection criteria for breeding females and males. The rate of inbreeding coefficient (ΔF) was calculated from effective population size (N_e) as ∆F = 1/2N_e. The N_e for a randomly mated population was calculated as N_e = (4N_m N_f) / (N_m + N_f) (Falconer and Mackay, 1996). Where, N_e = effective population size, N_m = number of breeding males and N_f = number of breeding females.

Results and Discussion

General household characteristics

The average family size in the study households were 8.60 ± 4.48 and 7.30 ± 2.47 for Adiyo Kaka and Horro districts, respectively. Family size was (P<0.01) different between the two sites. The larger family size in Adiyo Kaka could be attributed to polygamy. Figures for both districts obtained in this survey were higher than the national average family size of 5.20(CACC2003). The mean age of respondents for Adiyo Kaka was 37.7 years (ranged from 18 to 80 years) whereas for Horro it was 41.6 years (range from 20 to 80 years). Male heads constituted 96.5% and 93.1%of the households in Adiyo Kaka and Horro, respectively. This finding agrees with results of Taye (2006) for Southern Ethiopia and Garoma (2006) for Fentale district who reported a similar 95% male headed households.In Adiyo Kaka, about22.8% of the respondents were illiterate, 3.53% could read and write, 70.2% had attended primary school, and 3.50% reached secondary school. The corresponding values for Horro district were 19.1, 2.60, 48.7, and 28.7%, respectively. Only 0.90% of the farmers in Horro went to religion school. In contrast to this report, higher proportion of illiterate (59.7%) and lower level of primary and secondary attendants (21.7% and 5.42 %, respectively) were reported in southern Ethiopia (Taye2006).Garoma (2006) found a higher proportion of illiterate (90%) from pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of eastern Ethiopia.

The higher proportion of farmers having primary and secondary educational background would be an opportunity to utilize them in the introduction of new breeding programmes, for instance they can keep simple records which are of paramount importance in decision making.Nyangito (1986) showed that the adoption of new and improved technologies in agriculture was positively related to education. The importance of sheep to the smallholder farmers is indicated in this study in which about 76.8%of the smallholders in Adiyo Kaka and 62.6% in Horrodistrict put sheep as first species of livestock followed by cattle. The majority (93.9% in Adiyo Kaka and 74.8% in Horro) of the farmers responded that livestock are their main source of income and nearly 97.4% of respondents from Adiyo Kaka indicated that crop production was their main source of food. Similarly, in Horro, 87.7% of them depend on crop for their family food.

Livestock holding and composition, sheep ownership and gender role

The average reported livestock holding are presented in Table1.In Adiyo Kaka, the mean (±SD) number of cattle, sheep, goat, chicken, horse, mule, and donkey per household were 8.72 ± 5.70, 11.3± 1.27, 3.81 ± 3.19, 5.30 ± 3.69, 2.43 ± 1.46, 1.44 ± 1.03 and 1.60 ± 1.16, respectively. The corresponding figures for Horro district were 9.31 ± 6.94, 8.20 ± 2.05, 4.71 ± 4.77, 6.70 ± 6.22, 3.23 ± 2.81, 1.14 ± 0.38and 2.21 ± 1.67, respectively. Flock ownership was mostly by household head (husband) and spouse jointly. Across the two production systems men dominated most of sheep marketing (purchase and sale) and breeding related decisions, though women played an important role in sheep husbandry, particularly with regard to feeding, supplementation, healthcare and herding (Table 2). Family children also had a paramount share in sheep herding with less or no involvement of hired labour in sheep herding across the two production systems. Therefore, in designing of breeding strategies, the role of women and children in sheep production should be considered through relevant training on record keeping and selection schemes.

Flock size and structure

Average flock size (Table 3) in Adiyo Kakadistrict was 11.3± 1.27 (range of 1-50). It was 8.20 ± 2.05 (range of 2-50) in Horro district.Average flock sizes of 4.2, 5.0, 6.7 and 6.9 were reported for southwestEthiopia (Belay 1995), Alaba (Kocho 2006), Fentale (Garoma2006) and around Dire Dawa (Tekle 2003), respectively. Larger flock sizes of was reported for Gumuz sheep in Metema (Abegaz 2007) at 16 and in central highlands for Menz flocks (Mekoya 1999) at 24. Small flock size investigated in this study was identified as one of the limiting factors in applying within-breed selection at the household level.Therefore, this calls for designing a selection scheme applicable to the whole village level, which in fact is the objective of the Mega-project.

Females made up for about 60%of the total flock in Adiyo Kaka and 80% in Horro. Castrated and intact males older than 1 year comprised 5.9% and 5.8% of the total flock for Adiyo Kakawhereas the corresponding values for Horro were 2.9% and 3.6%, respectively.Similar to our results, Mukasa-Mugerwa (1986) reported 52.5% females proportion for thin-tailed Ethiopian sheep. Similarly, Abegaz (2007) working on Gumuz sheep reported that 42.58% of the flock was composed of adult females. In support of this investigation, Wilson (1986) noted that the higher proportion of males in the traditional systems indicate the objectives of wool, hair or meat production. The lower proportion of male (intact and castrates) could be attributed to the preference of farmers selling male rather than breeding females. According to Nsoso etal(2004), such flock structure arise because farmers know that maintaining a constant flock size depends on keeping the more reproductively active females longer than males.

Sheep production objectives

Table 4 presents ranked purposes of keeping sheep. The results indicated the relative importance of tangible benefits of sheep keeping (such as regular source of income, meat, and manure). Most farmers in both sites keep sheep primarily as source of income. Functions like ceremony received relatively low ranking among the reasons for keeping sheep in both production systems. Keeping of sheep for manure was ranked higher among farmers in Horro than farmers in Adiyo Kaka. None of the respondents mentioned keeping sheep for milk production which is associated with cultural taboo against the use of sheep milk for consumption and practiced only in pastoral areas of Afar.Similar multi- purpose functions of sheep rearing were reported for sheep keepers in the central highlands of Ethiopia (Mekoya 1999). Multiple functions are particularly important in low and medium input production environments. Different authors addressed the importance of multiple values of indigenous livestock breeds in developing countries in low input system (Kosgeyet al 2004; Mwacharo and Drucker 2005; Wurzinger et al 2006; Wuletaw et al2006). Lack of proper recognition of the purpose of keeping animals by their owners has been a major reason in the failure of past genetic improvement programs (Sölkner et al 1998).

Feed resources and herding practices

The different feed resources reported in the areas were natural pasture, fallow land, crop residue and crop aftermath. It was observed that grazing on fallow land was the major feed resource for farmers in Adiyo Kaka district during the rainy season when most of the farm land is covered with crops (94.7%). The importance of fallow lands as feed resource for sheep was also reported by Belay (1995). Natural pasture from communal grazing lands was the predominant source of feed for sheep during the main rainy season in Horro (93.0%). Across the two production systems, it was identified that feed availability is seasonal. To cope with feed shortage, farmers provide supplements such as grains, crop-residues, tree leaves, and local brewery by-products. However, none of the respondents reported the use of conventional supplements and improved forages. The use of common mineral salts as supplement for sheep was well recognized and practiced by majority of farmers in the study sites. The same practice was reported around Metema areas by Gumuz sheep keepers (Abegaz 2007) and in Jimma (Belay 1995). Management with respect to feeding or grazing was different for dry and rainy or cropping seasons (Table 5). During the rainy season the majority (62.2%) of sheep owners in Horro herded their animalswhereas in Adiyo Kaka more than half (53%) of the farmers practiced tethering.

Housing

Almost all of the farmers across the study districts house their sheep during the night. Substantial (42.5%) proportion of sheep keepers in Adiyo Kaka keep sheep at night in the main family house because of the fear of thefts and predators. About 34.8% of the respondents in Horro housed their sheep in separate housing, constructed purposively for sheep. In rare cases, in Adiyo Kaka farmers kept their sheep during the dry season in open fenced barn. In Adiyo Kaka, usually other livestock like cattle and goats are kept in the same family house with sheep separated by some barriers or tied separately. Wooden flooring was commonly used among the Adiyo Kaka sheep keepers to reduce the contact of animals with their faeces.

Breeding Practices

Mating system and sources of breeding rams

Mating was predominantly uncontrolled and no respondents reported controlled breeding. Out of a total of 229 farmers interviewed, about 56.3% and 29.6% kept their own breeding males in Adiyo Kaka and Horro, respectively. When breeding males were not reared in their flocks, the 93.5% of Adiyo Kaka farmers and 34.5% of Horro farmers got the service from neighbours’ or communal rams. In areas where families mix sheep in communal flocks like in Horro, mating took place at random. The majority (75.8%) of breeding rams for farmers in Horro were originated from own flock and 24.2% were purchased from market. Likewise, for Adiyo Kaka, about 84.2% of the rams were born in the own flock and 15.8% were purchased from market. Males were kept until about two years of average with the range of 1 to 4 years for Adiyo Kaka and 1 to 8 years for Horro. The ratio of rams older than 1 year to ewes in Adiyo Kaka flocks was 1:6.4. The corresponding value for Horro flocks was 1:13.4. A sex ratio comparable to Adiyo Kaka flock has been reported for thin-tailed Gumuz sheep breed in Metema area (Abegaz 2007) and for flocks under small scale mixed farms in the highlands of Ethiopia (Belay1995).  

Gains from breeding programmes are achieved only when inbreeding is controlled or minimized (Kosgey 2004). An average inbreeding of 22% and 45% were estimated for Adiyo Kaka and Horro, respectively under closed breeding management conditions. For open flocks (mixed flocks) the estimated change in inbreeding per generation was 6.4% for Adiyo Kaka and 8.9% for Horro flocks. Mixing of flocks dramatically reduced the inbreeding level in both regions. As stated by Gatenby (1986) inbreeding was greater in small flocks kept by smallholders and in flocks having only limited breeding rams. The predominance of uncontrolled mating in both production systems and small flock sizes would potentially increase the level of inbreeding, as indicated by Seleka (2001). Almost all breeding rams were originated from their respective flocks, which might imply that the relationship of animals within a flock is narrow and inbreeding is wide spread and increasing. The low level of inflow of animals of unrelated population either through purchase or other means may further increase the level of inbreeding within the small flock size. In smallholders of Horro areas, farmers kept males upto 8 years of age which could again increase the chance of mating of own daughters by the rams.

According to Jaitner et al (2001) and Kosgey (2004)inbreeding can be minimized by communal herding which allows breeding females from other flocks to mix with breeding males of different flocks, early castration of undesired males and rotational use of breeding males. It was reported that of the total ram owners, 94.4% of them share their ram with others. In areas such as Horro where most of the community practiced communal sharing of grazing lands; the level of inbreeding could be minimized through the use of unrelated breeding rams from the sub-populations. But this appears to be rarely practiced among the farmers in Adiyo Kaka areas. Controlled breeding scheme which involve rotational utilization of breeding males among the smallholders could be an alternative for flocks. This would require strong extension services to organize farmers to use the existing breeding rams efficiently.

Selection of breeding animals and trait preferences

Selection of parents of the next generation in both the rams and ewes was very common among the sampled farmers. Overall 79.7% and 94.7% of the farmers practice selection for breeding ram and females, respectively. Males were selected at 7.50 ± 3.0 months for Adiyo Kaka and 4.39 ± 2.24 months for Horro. The corresponding figure for females was 7.42 ± 3.01 and 4.54 ± 1.90 months. The ranking of important traits as perceived by farmers for the breeds in the two study sites are summarized in Tables 6 and 7 for males and females, respectively.Traits like size, color, and tail formation were all considered as important in both of the sites and given due emphasis in selecting breeding rams. Large body size, red or brown coat color, tail with long, broad and twisted at the end are the most preferred traits by most of the farmers in Adiyo Kaka. Similar traits were preferred for males by the farmers in Horro. However, in contrast to Adiyo Kaka, farmers of Horro preferred male with broad and straight pointed tail. Temperament and age were given relatively little emphasis in selecting breeding animals. As with males, size, color and tail formation were the most highly rated traits in selecting breeding females in both communities. Lambing interval, mothering ability, age at first lambing and twining rate were also considered in selecting breeding female. Adaptive traits such as tolerance to diseases and feed shortage were given low emphasis in selecting replacement stocks in both of the districts.

Castration and fattening

Castration was practiced by 98.2 and58.2 % of the farmers in Adiyo Kaka and Horro, respectively. Average age of castration was 10.8 ± 2.53 months for Adiyo Kaka and 17.8 ± 8.20 months for Horro sheep. Castration is primarily was practiced to improve the fattening potential (63.3% for Adiy Kaka and 47.4% for Horro district) and was the means of getting higher sale prices in local markets in Ethiopia. Castration to control breeding was rarely reported. Usually better rams with good body conformation and having potential for fattening are subjected to castration. This indicates that farmers need to be convinced of the importance of improved genotype and or incentives might be provided for those keeping their best rams for breeding purposes.

Fattening was practiced by 53.3% and 89.5% of the respondents in Horro and Adiyo Kaka areas, respectively. It was noted that within the same age categories females were less proportionally used for fattening compared to males. Farmers with large flock size do have the potential to retain male lambs for subsequent castration and fattening. Poor farmers sell younger males at earlier age.

Reproductive Performance

Age at first service

Age at first mating for both sexes is not fixed.Reproductive performances of Horro and Bonga sheep are summarized in Table8. Average reported age at first service for both breeds were 8.5 ± 2.5 and 7.2 ± 2.4 months for females and males, respectively. The age at first service in this study seem to be lower than that reported (10 months) previously in traditional systems for Menz sheep (Mukasa-Mugerwa and Lahlou-Kassi 1995).

Age at first lambing (AFL)

Average AFLwas 14.9 ± 3.12 months for Bonga and 13.3 ± 1.70 months for Horro sheep. Horro females gave birth earlier than Bonga females. The mean age at first lambing for both breeds was shorter than the 16.5 months reported by Gautsch (1987) for Menz sheep and the 15-22 months for the same breed reported by Mekoya (1999). This could be attributed to the differences in genotype and management factors especially feeding systems.Bonga and Horro sheep breeds perform better than most indigenous breeds and this is an opportunity for genetic improvement as greater population turnover and more rapid genetic progress could be obtained.

Lambing interval (LI)

The average lambing interval was 8.92 ± 2.13 months for Bonga and 9.23 ± 2.44 months for Horro sheep(Table 8). It appears that this value is shorter than what had been found for Menz sheep (Dibissa1990) and for sheep around Dire Dawa by Tekle (2003).In effect the two breeds, under traditional management production systems, lamb three times in two years. This is in agreement withliterature (Gautsch et al1986; Mukasa-Mugerwa et al1986; Wilson 1991) who indicated that through provision of better nutrition and management in organized farms of tropics it is practically possible to attain three lambings in two years. Such a breeding schedule would permit the exploitation of the full reproductive potential, while at the same time avoiding overly stressing females. Therefore, to achieve such optimum reproductive performances from the Bonga and Horro sheep breeds the prevailing feeding regime needs to be adequate enough throughout the year.

Reproductive life span, life time lamb crop and twining rate

Higher longevity under adverse conditions is one of the adaptation traits of tropical livestock. The average reproductive life span was 7.91 ± 3.10 years for Horro and 7.45 ± 2.73 years for Bonga ewes. As a base for initial selection, ancestral information is more important in the absence of any records. On average a Bonga ewe delivers 12.2 ± 1.80 lambs in her life time. For Horro sheep, it was 15.3 ± 4.3. A similar result was obtained for Gumuz sheep in Metema areas (13.5 ± 1.76lambs) (Abegaz 2007). Production of large number of progeny in a ewe life span provides ample scope for selection and genetic improvement.

A twining rate of 39.9% (or litter size of 1.40) and 36.0% (or litter size of 1.36) were reported for Horro and Bonga sheep breeds, respectively. Litter size of 1.14 ± 0.01 was reported for Menz sheep under village conditions (Agyemang et al 1985). Horro sheep had litter sizes of 1.16 ± 0.39 from a study in central Ethiopia (Asmamaw and van Arendonk2005). The higher twining rate reported for Horro in their natural breeding environment compared to on-station results might be due to the genotype by environment interaction effects; where the breed performed poorly when it was kept in the cool highlands of Debre Berhan (Tibbo 2006).There is no on-station information for Bonga so far on reproductive performance to make any comparison. Litter size is directly influenced by ovulation rate and controlled by genotype and environmental factors (Mukasa-Mugerwa and Lahlou-Kassi 1995). The two breeds under investigation showed relatively better multiple births under the prevailing low-input production system. It appeared that these breeds have potential for twining rate which is a key trait in selection as more animals will be available for selection programs.

Weaning practices

All farmers across the study sites practiced natural weaning. The overall reported average weaning ages for both sexes and breeds was 4.80 ± 1.32 months, within a range of 1 to 9 months. This figure was more than what had been reported for the thin-tailed Gumuz sheep (3.95± 0.9 months) (Abegaz2007). Weaning age of 3-4 months, which is shorter than the present result, was also reported for indigenous sheep breeds of Ethiopia by Tembely et al(1994). There is little information on effect of unrestricted suckling on the performance of indigenous sheep breeds in Ethiopia. The effect of unrestricted suckling particularly for long period on onset of oestrus need further study.

Disease prevalence and veterinary services

Poor health management is one of the important problems hindering livestock productivity in Ethiopia. In Adiyo Kaka, farmers indicated pasteurellosis, coenurosis, diarrhoea and lung worm in that order, as the most important diseases of sheep at different seasons of the year. The most significant diseases indicated by farmers in Horro, in order of importance, were lung worm, liver fluke (fasciolosis) and coenurosis. Similar diseases were reported across different part of the country (Belay 1995; Mekoya 1999;Achenef et al 1999; Tibbo 2000). Generally, animal health services is characterized by lack of drugs in the vicinity, inadequacy of service and lack of trained personnel to deliver proper livestock health services. Unsystematic use of modern drugs like albendazole, especially those purchased from open markets for fattening purpose and treatment of parasites without consultation of veterinarians,might lead to development of drug resistance.Maximum productivity in a given system of production emerges when disease control is in place (Gatenby 1986). There is a need for concurrent development of appropriatehealth intervention packages when implementinggenetic improvement strategies.

Sheep marketing

Farmers sell their sheep mainly to traders, consumers and to a lesser extent to other farmers. Even though farmers across the study sites sell their animals when financial problems force them to sell, they do prefer to sell their sheep during holidays and festive occasions. Sheep are primarily sold in the nearby market where local traders are principal actors in the marketing process. There was neither organized form of marketing system do exit in the study sites. As indicated by farmers, sheep price is affected by season - holidays and festivals. It was reported that better price is fetched during Ethiopian New Year, Christmas, and Easter. Information on market price, supply, grades, and standards are not available to farmers. Formation of farmers’ cooperatives and development of marketing facilities would enable farmers to get better prices for their animals. Further, farmers’ cooperatives enhance access to better markets through strengthening their financial capacity and help in linking the farmers to export agencies (Kosgey 2004). Value addition to the improved genotype, for example, in terms of fattening could play an important role in attracting interest from buyers and thus increase benefit to the farmers.Appropriate economic incentives are necessary drives for genetic improvement (Seleka 2001).

Conclusions

• Breeding strategies targeted at genetic improvement of Bonga and Horro sheep breeds need to incorporate the multi-functional roles that sheep play in these systems and focus on those traits identified as important by the sheep owners. As an input for setting up sustainable community-based breeding strategies, the present survey identified several constraints that should be addressed. These includeearly disposal of breeding males, small flock sizes with only a few breeding males, uncontrolled mating, absence of structured breeding seasons, lack of separating animals by sex, and communal grazing in wet season and free roaming during dry season making controlled breeding difficult. Farmers’ indigenous knowledge and experiences on sheep breeding practices should be an integral part of the strategies.Traditional breeding management schemes should be improved through training.A system by which breeding rams could be regularly exchanged between farmers should be created and strengthened to minimize the level of inbreeding and enhance efficient utilization of better breeding males.

  
  

• To avoid early disposal of breeding males, strong extension service is required to convince farmers and to develop interest about the benefits of better genotypes or incentives might be provided for those keeping their best males for breeding purposes. Owing to the small flock size in both the sites, reasonable genetic gain demands the formation of breeders’ group or co-operatives, which in turn require full participation and long-term commitment of sheep keepers and other livestock development actors. To realize full benefits of breeding programmes, approaches should be holistic and concurrent improvement in the non-genetic factors (disease and feed) is central.

  
  

• The on-farm assessment made on the reproductive and productive performance of the indigenous sheep in the study area is preliminary in its nature and needs to be further investigated. There is a need for a well planned on-station study to learn the genetic potential of Bonga sheep for meat production. The fattening potential and meat quality of Bonga sheep, recognized by the sheep owners, need further performance testing and carcass evaluation under feedlot conditions.

Acknowledgements

Financial support for this study was obtained from the Austrian Development Agency. This study is part of an on-going mega project being implemented jointly by the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), University of Natural Resource and Applied Sciences (BOKU) and Ethiopian research systems. The authors would like to particularly thank Bako and Bonga Agricultural Research Centres for facilitating this study. We also extend our sincere appreciation to Adiyo Kaka and Horro district staffs of Agriculture and Rural Development for their unreserved support and involvement in data collection process. We are also grateful for the smallholder farmers who participated in this study. Oromia Agricultural Research Institute (OARI) is greatly thanked for granting study leave for the senior author.

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Received 12 February 2012; Accepted 20 February 2012; Published 1 July 2012

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