Assessment of Small Ruminant Management Practices in Jijiga and Shinile Zones of Somali Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

A survey was conducted to assess sheep and goat management practices in Jijiga and Shinile zones of Somali Region, eastern Ethiopia from November to December 2004. Information on sheep and goat ownership patterns, production objectives, and management and production constraints were collected from 360 households using semi structured questionnaires. The mean number of sheep and goats per household were 8.76±0.5 and 7.94±0.5 in Jijiga zone and 11.12±1.0 and 10.08±0.8 in Shinile zone. About 56% of the respondents kept sheep and goats for both local and oversea markets, whereas 43.1% of them reared their sheep only for local market alone. About 58% of the pastoralists bred their animals during wet season. Home-grown forage production was not a common practice in the areas and the pastoralists totally depended on natural pasture as source of feed for ruminants. About 63% of the interviewed pastoralists used natural mineral soil while 31% used both Carro and common salt. With
regard to housing, about 85% of the respondents housed sheep in the open kraal at night. Shortage of feed and water, especially during drought period was found to be the major constraint to sheep and goat production due to which the highest death was reported.