Animal Production

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    ASSESSMENT OF PRODUCTION AND MARKETING SYSTEMS, AND ON-FARM EVALUATION OF THE EFFECT OF SUPPLEMENTING THE LEAVES OF Balanites aegyptiaca AND MAIZE GRAIN ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMIC RETURN OF INDIGENOUS GOATS IN GAMOGOFA ZONE
    (Hawassa University College of Agriculture, 2017) NIGATU DEJENE DENEKE
    The study was conducted in Arbaminch Zuria and Mirab Abaya districts of Gamogofa Zone of SNNPRS of Ethiopia. The objectives of the study were to assess goat production and marketing system, identify and prioritize goat production and marketing constraints and opportunities, and evaluate the effect of supplementing with the leaves of Balanites aegyptiaca and maize grain on growth performance & economic return of indigenous goats in the study area. The study involved 2 parts. The survey part of the study assessed goat production and marketing system using cross sectional survey, focus group discussion and key informants interview. A total of 120 representative households (2 districts x 2 Agro ecology x 2 PA x 15 households) were selected for the study following multi-stage stratified sampling, the action research part evaluated growth performance and economic return of indigenous bucks supplemented with maize grain and leaves of Balanites aegyptiaca . Thus, 20 intact 8-10 month age indigenous bucks with an average initial body weight of 16.13±0.3kg (Mean± SE) were drawn from volunteer goat producers. The bucks were blocked into five blocks/farmers of four bucks based on initial BW and randomly assigned to one of the four treatment feeds within a block/farmer allowing five bucks per treatment feeds. Dietary treatments consisted of feeding natural grass hay ad libitum supplemented with 50g wheat bran (T1); feeding natural grass hay ad libitum supplemented with mixtures of 50g wheat bran and 200g cracked maize grain (T2); feeding natural grass hay ad libitum supplemented with mixtures of 50g wheat bran and 200g dried leaves of Balanites aegyptiaca (T3), and feeding natural grass hay ad libitum supplemented with 50g wheat bran, and mixture of 200g of dried leaves of Balanites aegyptiaca and cracked maize grain at 1:1 ratio (T4).The experiment was laid down using randomized complete block design. According to the respondents, income generation was the primary reason for keeping goats with the highest index values of 0.277 followed by saving, use of manure, as social capital and meat consumption with an index values of 0.269, 0.177, 0.163 and 0.114, respectively. Road side browsing ranked as the first source of feed for goats according to the average rank results from interviewed households with the highest index value of 0.246 and followed by Communal and private browsing lands with an index values of 0.229 and 0.227, respectively. Among the available water sources, rivers contribute the highest 40% of the water required for goats. Disease and parasites were the major constrains for the sector and caused higher 13.2%, 13.6%, 14.7% and 13.3% death of unweaned male kids, unweaned female kids, weaned male kids and weaned female kids, respectively in Arbaminch Zuria district from the studied areas 12 months before the start of this study. Male and female goats achieve AFS at 9.4 and 7.9 months and also fertile at ages below 54.6 and 95.5 months respectively. AFK, KI, LS, weaning age of kids and lifetime kid productions were 13.9, 7.8, 1.24, 4.1 months and 14.5 respectively. Brokers are the major marketing constraint and about 95% and 31.7% of the midland and lowland respondents, respectively reported that they sales their goats by eye ball price estimation. The action research showed that supplementing goats with maize grain and Balanites aegyptiaca (T2-T4) improved ADG (48.7, 48.9 and 66.8g/day for T2, T3 and T4, respectively) compared to the control (33.2g/day). However, among the supplemented groups, bucks fed on T4 gained superior ADG than bucks fed on T2 and T3 diets. Moreover, partial budget analysis confirmed that T4 was more profitable compared to other supplementary treatments. Therefore, it is concluded that supplementing growing bucks with T4 could be recommended for smallholder goat fatteners.