GAMADA KARICHO CHAWICHA2026-03-232025https://etd.hu.edu.et/handle/123456789/1365The study was conducted in peri-urban and urban areas of Dodola town in Dodola woreda, West Arsi Zone of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia, with the objectives of identifying and generating comprehensive information on fattening practices, feed resources, and marketing system of small ruminants. The study is composed of two parts; a Survey part and Laboratory analysis part. For the survey parts, a total of 147 respondents were randomly selected from four purposively selected kebeles. The closed and open-ended questionnaire were used for collecting quantitative and qualitative data. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS, version 26 software. Independent sample T-test means comparison was employed for quantitative data. The index was computed for the ranked data. The overall average land holding of the respondents was 1.8±0.2 hectares, out of which 1.6±0.1 hectare was allocated for crop production. Livelihood of the society was highly depended on crop production (61.2%), followed by mixed crop and livestock production (22.4%). The major purpose of small ruminant fattening was to generate income (44.90%), however fattening practice held was a traditional system (85.71), with a low (3.2±0.1) average number of fattened sheep and/or goats per fattening cycles. Available feed resources were seasonal based, thus natural pasture (59.18%) and crop residues (61.22%) were used during wet and dry season, respectively. Improved forage production and utilization as well as urea treatment was not adopted in the study areas. Free grazing (71.43%) was dominant feeding system in the study areas. For the laboratory part; Totally 11 feed samples were taken for laboratory analysis. Six feed samples from both peri urban and urban, three feed samples from urban, and two feed samples from peri-urban area. The average (Mean ± SE) chemical composition (DM, CP, EE, Ash, NDF, ADF and ADL) of feed resources were determined on DM basis. The actual dry matter contents of selected feed types were ranged between 33.9±0.4 of mixed grass in peri-urban area to 86.8±0.1 of screened barley by-product in urban area. The highest (28.6±0.0) CP content was recorded in linseed cake, whereas crop residues contain low (3.2±0.1-4.7±0.0 of barley straw and 3.8±0.0-4.5±0.0 of wheat straw) CP contents in current study area. On the other hand, crop residues contain high content of NDF, ADF and ADL than other feed types selected in current study area. Small ruminants marketing in study area was seasonal, where target markets (71.4%) were used for selling. Producers-small traders (58.50%) selling was identified as the main market channel, with high number of small traders (67.35%) as market actors. Decline in grazing land, feed shortage and disease and parasite were the top three challenges, whereas small starting budget, increased price and high market demand were ranked as 1st, 2nd and 3rd opportunities of small ruminants fattening in current study areas.en-USChallengesFattening practicesFeed resourcesFeeding systemMarketing systemOpportunityThesis