OARI

Designing community-based breeding strategies for indigenous sheep breeds of smallholders in Ethiopia

Presented by Aynalem Haile at the ICARDA-ILRI-BOKU project workshop on Designing community-based breeding strategies for indigenous sheep breeds of smallholders in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, October 29, 2010.

Community based breeding

• Centralized within-breed

selection and

crossbreeding programs

have failed

• New thinking – involving

local communities and

institutions in the design,

implementation and

ownership of breeding

strategies

• Community-based

breeding

Goals

Improved productivity and income of sheep owners by providing access to improved animals that respond to improved feeding and management, targeting specific market opportunities

The project sites

The sheep breeds

How did we start?

• Planning workshop

• Criteria for community selection

• Project team structure

• Official launching and announcement of the

project at district level

Description of the production

system

Assessing market access

Impactassessment

Proce

ss in

designing co

mmunity-base

d breeding st

rate

gy

Proce

ss in

designing co

mmunity-base

d breeding st

rate

gy

Designing community-based breeding

Assessing traditional

institutions and policies

Definition of breeding goals

Developingbreeding strategy

Implementing breeding strategy

Evaluationof results

Developingguidelines

Description of production systems

Survey/ measurements/observation

Study on constraints to market

Definition of breeding goals

A. Own-flock ranking based on farmer’s choice

B. Ranking of groups of live animals

Brown Black

C. Hypothetical choice experiment

Workshop to study community breeding practices

• Current animal management practices

• Envisaged animal management practices

• Social network analysis

Modeling alternative breeding plans

• ZPLAN (18 alternatives produced)

• Four alternatives were presented

– Varied based on the proportion of rams

selected (10 and 15%) and length of

use of rams (2 and 3 years)

• Color and tail type were preferred and

considered

• Three traits for each breed were identified

Trait preferences

Menz Horro Bonga Afar

Option 10% intensity

2 years ram use

10% intensity

2 years RU

10% intensty

2 years RU

10% intensty

3 years RU

Traits Fleece weight

Growth Lamb

survival

Growth Twining rateLamb

survival

GrowthTwining

rateLS

Milk pdnGrowthLS

Workshop with community to choose among the alternatives

• Present the alternatives

• Decide on selection

approaches

• Discuss ram exchange

schemes

Implementation of the preferred option

• Animal identification

• Development of data recording format

• Data collection- enumerator supported by

community

• Selection of breeding rams- three months and

year

• Value addition- not selected rams

• Animal show and award

• Purchase of selected ram lambs by way of

availing revolving fund- Revert negative selection

Selection of breeding rams

Animal Show and Award

Outputs/impacts

• Functional breeding programs

• Awareness creation

• Health and feed interventions

• Market linkages

• Publications

• Graduate students

• Capacity building at different levels

General conclusions

• Community involvement is crucial for success

• At critical stage- need for support

• Researcher’s should act as catalysts and facilitators

providing options to farmers to make decisions

based on scientific evidence

• For implementation it is essential to have all

stakeholders involved right from the start: this

increases commitment and therefore efficiency and

sustainability

• Genetic improvement need to be supported by other

interventions