E3 Journal of Agricultural Research and Development

E3 Journal of Agricultural Research and Development Vol. 8 (1) pp. 008-013, March 2018; © E3 Journals; ISSN 2276-9897
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18685/EJARD(8)1_EJARD-18-010

Assessment of sheep production and marketing system in Shashogo Woreda Hadiya zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted in Shashogo Woreda of Hadiya Zone Southern Ethiopia to assess sheep production and marketing system. For the present study to make representative based on agroecolgy 4, 2 and 1 Kebeles were selected randomly from “Woina Dega”, “Kola” and “Dega” respectively. Then from each Kebeles 15 households were selected purposely based on the experience and involvement of sheep production and thus a total of 105 house households were included in the study. The results of present study showed that the majority (83.3%) of the respondents were male headed while the rest (16.7%) were female headed. With regarded to the age categories about 48.3% of the respondents were found with the age category between 15-45 years old. Most (98%) of the interviewed households were practicing extensive sheep production system, while the rest (2%) practiced semi intensive system. The common feed resource for sheep was natural grain and browsing (73.3%), crop residues (20%) and household wastes (6.7%). Feed shortage during dry season was the most critical constraints for sheep raised by majority of (66.7 %) of the respondent while the rest (33.3%) also reported they faced with feed shortage during the wet season. Sheep were marketed through formal (88.6 %) and informal (11.4 %) system but the market was constrained mainly by lack of awareness (42.9%). The selling price of sheep in the study area earns more money depending on season and holidays. Accordingly, about 48.67% of the respondents indicated that sheep earns more money during Easter while about 33.3 and 18.1% of the respondents indicated that sheep earns more money during new year and Christmas respectively. The respondents also reported that their sheep selling price is related with age (12%), color (14%), body condition (67%) of the sheep as well the season of selling (7%) of the sheep. In can be concluded that sheep production in the study area was traditional and constrained by different factors. Therefore, different improvement strategies to improve the existing constraints are needed to be employed.

Keywords: sheep production, feed resource, crop residues, body condition