Sheep Production and Breeding Systems in North Western Lowlands of Amhara Region, Ethiopia: Implication for Conservation and Improvement of Gumz Sheep Breed
A
questionnaire survey and focused group discussions were conducted to
characterize sheep production systems and traditional breeding practices of
Gumz sheep as an essential step for designing the Gumz sheep breed conservation
and improvement programme. A total of 240 households were included in the study
during the period of November 2016 to March 2016. Smallholder farmers kept
sheep as a source of income, meat and wealth with an index value of 0.43, 0.19
and 0.15, respectively. Important purposes of large scale farmers for keeping
sheep were source of cash income (0.57) and investment opportunity (0.22). Average
sheep flock sizes were 17.25±0.68 and 90.63±5.38 at smallholder and large scale production
systems, respectively. Smallholder sheep flocks’ composition was 7.47±0.28 Gumz, 3.68±0.25
Rutana and 4.52±0.22 Rutana-Gumz crossbred
sheep. The corresponding figures for large scale farms were 21.2±1.4, 30.7±1.69
and 24.7±1.47 sheep. The average
numbers of rams in the smallholder sheep flocks were 0.31±0.04 Gumz, 0.39±0.04
Rutana and 0.24±0.03 crossbreds,
respectively. The corresponding figures for large scale farms were 3.10±0.13 Rutana and 0.90±0.14
crossbreds. The Gumz sheep was large in number, but farmers prefer Rutana and
its crosses than Gumz in both systems. Diseases, stock theft and labour
shortage were reported as the main constraints of sheep production. Although
the pure Gumz breed meets the multifaceted roles of sheep for the smallholder
farmers, the Gumz sheep population was declining in number in the study area
due to uncontrolled breeding with Rutana and high preference of farmers for
crossbreds over Gumz sheep. It is observed that there is a risk of dilution and
loss of genetic diversity of the Gumz sheep. Hence, we recommend designing of
conservation-based breeding program to conserve the locally adapted Gumz breed
as well as to improve sheep production and productivity in the area through
rational utilization of all the three genotypes.
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