Ethiopia is among the poorest countries in which poverty, land and resource degradation appear to feed off each other. The irony is that Ethiopia is a country with high biodiversity and distinctive ecosystems and the natural resource base is critical to the economy and the livelihood of a high percentage of the population. Being the owner of varying agro ecology, the country's agricultural production system had practiced for decades with a maximum potential. However, because of the presence of interrelated problems, the productivity had not sustained as its potential. From the interrelated problems, land degradation takes the first and challengeable problem in many countries. Land degradation refers to a temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land, or its potential for environmental management as a result; the long-term biological and environmental potential of the land has been compromised. Land degradation in the Ethiopian highlands (i.e. areas above 1500 m.a.s.l.) has been a concern for many years and is a great threat for the future that requires great effort and resources to ameliorate. It had adverse effect on lowering of livestock production by shrinking grazing land, the fertile soil types were washed and the grazing land was dominantly covered by unpalatable pastures and grasses which had low nutritive value and fertility for crop-livestock production system. In other cases, degradation induces farmers to convert land to lower-value uses; for instance, cropland converted to grazing land, or grazing lands converted to shrubs or forests. Equitable and secure access to land is a critical factor for the rural poor, especially livestock owners, who depend on agriculture and animal-related activities for their livelihood. Having secure access to land for agriculture and pastoral activities reduces their vulnerability and enhances their opportunities to invest in land for agriculture and livestock activities. Historical patterns of feudal ownership of land followed by government ownership and despite policy change uncertain status of land ownership. These land distribution and ownership patterns coupled with continuous fragmentations and degradation disrupt the balance between crop, livestock, and forest production. These things nowadays enforce Ethiopian farmers to put more land into crop production than working on livestock sector. Livelihoods are complex, dependent on animal and crop production based on land and water resources, with emerging market opportunities. And from year to year, the size of farms is getting minimized because of land degradation and segmentations, and these make a change in farm size dynamics and farming shift. Currently, there is a great scenario towards the land policy pattern and agricultural production system, which is the backbone of the country's economy. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to review the effect of land degradation on farm size dynamics and crop-livestock production since the impact of these things is not well measured.
The paper is initiated to design appropriate conservation strategies and breeding scheme for Fogera cattle breed that will be used as a guide for other Ethiopian indigenous cattle breed. Two types of data, on-farm and on-station, were used; the on-farm data was collected from three districts, namely, Fogera, Dera, and Bahir Dar Zuria; those are expected as the home of the breed. A total of 150 farmers, which are knowledgeable and having at least one cattle of Fogera phenotype in their herd, were purposively selected and interviewed. Additionally, farmer's focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted to capture the historical background, population, and distribution of the breed. SPSS (version 16) and index method was used to analyze the quantitative and scoring data's, respectively. A meeting at national and regional level was also conducted to evaluate the existing conservation strategy and to identify the major stakeholders for the strategy. The main reasons to conserve Fogera breed are due to presence of interrelated constraints, presence of unique traits of the breed, better attitude of farmers, and decreasing population trend of the breed. Community-based in situ conservation strategy, to ensure the participation of the community, was designed for the breed. With the conservation strategy, related activities like feed development, animal health interventions, market linkage, and development of cooperatives will be implemented to improve the working environment. The stakeholders that are identified as an actor in the strategy should realize their honest participation for the sustainability of conservation and improvement of the breed.
Background: Understanding the phenotypic and genetic parameter estimates of growth traits is important for an effective livestock genetic improvement programme. Objectives:In this study, we evaluated the phenotypic performances and estimated genetic parameters for birthweight (BWT), weaning weight (WWT), pre-weaning average daily gain (PADG), pre-weaning Kleiber ratio (PKR), pre-weaning growth efficiency (PGE) and pre-weaning relative growth rate (PRGR) of Fogera cattle in Ethiopia. Methods: Growth data collected from 2000 to 2018 in Andassa Livestock ResearchCenter were used for the study. General linear model of SAS 9.1 was used to estimate the least squares mean (LSM) ± standard error (SE) for phenotypic performances, and AI-REML of Wombat software combined with a series of five single-trait animal models to estimate phenotypic variance and its direct, maternal and residual components. Calf sex, calf birth season and calf birth year were the fixed effects considered.
The study was conducted to estimate the population size, herd structure, and breeding objectives of Fogera cattle in Ethiopia. It was carried out in 23 purposively selected kebeles in five districts of three zones bordering Lake Tana. Interviewed farmers were selected based on their livestock ownership. Primary information on the general production system and trends of Fogera cattle was collected from 527 farmers, and a population count included 479 respondents. To differentiate the pure Fogera cattle from the mixed and highland zebu breeds, color photographs of the three breeds were used by each enumerator. Kebele administrators and elders as well as district and zone officials assisted in the operation to identify the true type of Fogera cattle. MS-Excel (2010) and SPSS (version 20) were used to analyze population size and production systems, respectively. The average cattle holding per household was 7.03 ± 0.2 heads. Analysis of multiple responses revealed that the dominant reasons for keeping cattle in the herd were traction power (96.67%), milk (92.76%), and manure (83.95%). More than half of the respondents (64.65%) practiced culling both male and female animals from their herds. Interviewed farmers selected bulls for mating by coat color (56.84%), body conformation (55.08%), and body size (47.46%). They also indicated that they selected the Fogera breed (48.63%), highland zebu (18.16%), and mixed (17.38%) as bulls for mating with their cattle. Based on the respondents’ information, the population trend of the Fogera breed decreases (40%), increases (13%), is stable (6%), and is not known (41%). From the total population estimated, households own the relatively pure Fogera (41%), Fogera–zebu mix (35%), and highland zebu (24%). In this study, the total estimated number of breeding Fogera cattle was 55,646 ± 16,579 heads. It was concluded that the breed has declined and is dealing with genetic deterioration as the population size decreases due to the shift of grazing lands to crop production. As population estimation was performed by morphological features, further research supported by molecular study should be conducted.
The economic benefit of dairy products can be enhanced by increasing the efficiency of growth and survival rate of calves. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of non-genetic factors on pre- and post-weaning growth traits and mortality rate of pure Fogera and their F1 cross Fogera × Holstein Friesian calves at the Andassa and Chagni Cattle Breeding and Improvement Ranch. Retrospective types of study design and direct measurement were used to collect the data. A total of 3,626 for pre-weaning weight records and 107 for post-weaning measurements were used for analysis. Genotype, sex, dam parity, year of birth, the season of birth, and location were the considered production factors. The overall least square means (LSM ± SE) of birth weights were 22.33 ± 0.12 and 24.56 ± 0.11 kg for Fogera and their crosses, respectively. The overall LSM ± SE of weaning weights were 93.25 ± 0.85 and 111.63 ± 0.84 kg for Fogera and their cross calves, respectively. The overall post-weaning weight for Fogera and their cross calves were 101.02 ± 1.62 and 111.08 ± 2.65, respectively. All variables considered in the model, except dam parity, significantly (P < 0.05) affected post-weaning weight. The overall recorded mortality rate was 3% which was nearly the optimum that many scholars agreed to successful rearing practices.
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