Conservation and Improvement Strategy for Fogera Cattle: A Lesson for Ethiopia Ingenious Cattle Breed Resource

Abstract

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.

Evaluation of the breeding practices and population trend of the Fogera cattle breed in Ethiopia

“…Likewise, several studies had been conducted on Fogera cattle's characteristics, specific morphological appearance, and distinctive adaptive features (Alberro and Haile-Mariam, 1982;Rege and Tawah, 1999;Gebeyehu et al, 2004;DAGRIS, 2007). In addition, sufficient information is available on the breed's productive and reproductive performance under various production and management systems (Addisu and Hegede, 2003;Gebeyehu et al, 2004;Belete et al, 2010;Melaku et al, 2011;Damitie et al, 2015;Girma et al, 2016;Tesfa et al, 2017). Fogera cattle breed appears to be at threat due to changes in the agricultural production system in the area, genetic dilution by interbreeding with other adjacent indigenous cattle breeds, and by indiscriminate crossbreeding with exotic dairy cattle breeds.…”

“…Fogera cattle breed appears to be at threat due to changes in the agricultural production system in the area, genetic dilution by interbreeding with other adjacent indigenous cattle breeds, and by indiscriminate crossbreeding with exotic dairy cattle breeds. Population viability analysis indicates that the pure Fogera cattle are not viable, and its population growth is decreasing due to feed shortage, interbreeding with other indigenous breeds, diseases, and parasites (Kefyalew et al, 2015;Tesfa et al, 2017). The estimated population size of Fogera cattle breed has declined progressively from about 800,000 heads in the 1980s (Alberro and Haile-Mariam, 1982) to 15,000 heads in 2004 (Gebeyehu et al, 2004).…”

Open Nucleus Breeding Strategy for Fogera Cattle Breed in Ethiopia: Achievements and Lessons Learnt

“…Although information on the status and trend of farm animals is limited, different indigenous breeds are found at different threat levels [5]; they are either declined or extinct [6]. At the moment breeds like Sheko cattle and fogera are highly threatened as a result of interbreeding with other breeds and change in production system, resulting in decline of the pure line [7,8]. These breeds are decreasing and deteriorating in terms of both population size and genetic quality due to paradigm shift in the existing farming system and production system, and farm size dynamics of the native habitat, higher intensity of off-take rate and in turn the subsequent genetic dilution [9,10].…”

“…Ethiopian farmers choose this breed as it tend to begin calving at an earlier age; their strength to plough the heavy clay soils found in the country's wetland areas; and the breed is valued for various social purposes, including, for example, as an important part of a bride's dowry [1,17]. Currently the breed is used as dam and sire line to make use of its respective mothering ability and large body frame; and considerable better milk yield and growth rate [7]. The unique value of this breed was recognized during the reign of the late Emperor Haile Selassie and in 1964 a Fogera cattle conservation and improvement center was established [1] at Gojjam province, Andassa ranch.…”

Impact of climatic variability on growth performance of Fogera cattle in Northwestern Ethiopia

“…Different studies have been conducted to evaluate the genetic parameters of growth and reproductive traits of Fogera cattle, and it's crossbred at Metekel Ranch and its surrounding (Bitew and Hegde 2002;Menale et al 2011;Zeleke et al 2016a;Tesfa et al 2017;Bekele et al 2017). However, there is a paucity of information on the effects of ambient temperature (AT), relative humidity (RH), and temperature-humidity index (THI) due to climate variability on growth parameters such as birth weight (BW) and weaning weight (WW) of the breed.…”