Traditional breeding objectives and practices of goat, sheep and cattle smallholders in The Gambia and implications in relation to the design of breeding interventions

cg.contributor.crpLivestock and Fishen
cg.coverage.countryGambiaen
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2GMen
cg.coverage.regionAfricaen
cg.coverage.regionWestern Africaen
cg.creator.identifierElizabeth Jane Poole: 0000-0002-8570-794Xen
cg.creator.identifierKaren Marshall: 0000-0003-4197-1455en
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-012-0194-1en
cg.isijournalISI Journalen
cg.issn0049-4747en
cg.issn1573-7438en
cg.issue1en
cg.journalTropical Animal Health and Productionen
cg.reviewStatusPeer Reviewen
cg.subject.ilriANIMAL BREEDINGen
cg.subject.ilriBREEDSen
cg.subject.ilriCATTLEen
cg.subject.ilriGOATSen
cg.subject.ilriINDIGENOUS BREEDSen
cg.subject.ilriLIVESTOCKen
cg.subject.ilriSHEEPen
cg.volume45en
dc.contributor.authorEjlertsen, M.en
dc.contributor.authorPoole, Elizabeth J.en
dc.contributor.authorMarshall, Karenen
dc.date.accessioned2013-03-16T07:58:43Zen
dc.date.available2013-03-16T07:58:43Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/27716
dc.titleTraditional breeding objectives and practices of goat, sheep and cattle smallholders in The Gambia and implications in relation to the design of breeding interventionsen
dcterms.abstractThis paper describes the traditional breeding objectives and practices of West African Dwarf goat, Djallonke sheep, and N'dama cattle keepers in The Gambia and discusses the implications of these on the design of breeding-related interventions to improve livestock productivity. Data were collected via surveys implemented within three study sites in The Gambia, where traditional mixed crop-livestock smallholder farming predominates. The surveys comprised a participatory rural appraisal conducted in nine communities and a household questionnaire targeting 238 households. Livestock-keeping households were classified as 'poorer' or 'wealthier' based on the number of cattle owned. The most important objectives for keeping all species of livestock for the poorer groups (0 to 10 cattle) was 'savings and insurance', followed by 'income' and 'ceremonial/dowry' for the small ruminants and 'manure' and 'draught' for both cows and bulls. In contrast, for the wealthier group (more than 10 cattle), savings and insurance was the fourth to seventh ranked production objective (depending on species), with the most important production objectives being ceremonial/dowry for goats, income for sheep and manure for cows and bulls. An analysis of breeding practices indicated that breeding animals are selected on criteria which partially align to the breeding objectives, animals are rarely purchased for the purpose of breed improvement, knowledge of the cause and consequence of inbreeding is low and breeding decision makers may not necessarily be the livestock owner, particularly if the livestock owner is a women. Given this, it is suggested that capacity building on breeding-related issues, particularly in relation to the selection of breeding animals and specifically targeted at the different socioeconomic groups of livestock keepers, may be an appropriate, effective and relatively low-cost breeding intervention.en
dcterms.accessRightsLimited Accessen
dcterms.audienceScientistsen
dcterms.available2012-06-17en
dcterms.bibliographicCitationEjlertsen, M., Poole, J. and Marshall, K. 2013. Traditional breeding objectives and practices of goat, sheep and cattle smallholders in The Gambia and implications in relation to the design of breeding interventions. Tropical Animal Health and Production 45(1): 219-229.en
dcterms.extentp. 219-229en
dcterms.issued2012-12en
dcterms.languageenen
dcterms.licenseCopyrighted; all rights reserveden
dcterms.publisherSpringeren
dcterms.subjectanimal breedingen
dcterms.typeJournal Articleen

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