Small Ruminant Production and Marketing Practices in Harawa, Somali Region, Ethiopia ()
ABSTRACT
Small ruminant production is an essential component of agricultural
activity for smallholder farmers. The aim of this study was to assess small
ruminant production and marketing practices in the Harawa district of Somali
Region, Ethiopia. For the study 90 households owning small ruminant were
selected from three different towns of Harawa district. Information on sheep
and goat ownership patterns, production objectives, and management and
production constraints were collected from 90 households using semi structured questionnaires.
The available feed resources are grass species, crop aftermath and legumes species
are the common ones. The average family size was 5.78 ± 0.235 persons per
household. Crop-livestock farming was the commonly used farming system with
(62.75%) extensive and (27.25%) semi-intensive production system. The mean
total land holding was 6.08 ± 0.24 ha per HH and was significantly (P < 0.05) varied across production systems. On
average, the sample households owned 46.32 ± 1.22 sheep, 38.28 ± 1.40 goat,
4.85 ± 0.43 cattle, 4.15 ± 0.54 camel, 2.18 ± 0.19 donkey and 0.53 ± 0.20
poultry. The finding shows most of the respondents kept sheep and goats for
insurance as ranked first. Feed shortage was ranked first as the main
constraint hindering sheep and shortage of veterinary service, drought, disease,
water shortage and poor infrastructure were the other major constraints of
sheep and goat production in the study area. The major production and marketing
constraints in small ruminant production in the area are disease and parasite
(cadho), feed and grazing land shortage, low productivity, poor veterinary
service and poor of infrastructure. Therefore, it is important to use modern
production systems with improved technology in the area and improve traditional
system through feed supplementation and better health care. As well as
improving marketing efficiency through appropriate policy and provision of
information is important.
Share and Cite:
Mahamed, S. and Ali, H. (2023) Small Ruminant Production and Marketing Practices in Harawa, Somali Region, Ethiopia.
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
13, 249-261. doi:
10.4236/ojas.2023.132018.
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