Socio-economic aspects of goat nutrition in Swaziland

B.H. Ogwang, D. Mavimbela, R. Vilakati and G.Z. Khumalo

University of Swaziland, P. O. Luyengo, Swaziland

Abstract
Introduction
Methodology
Results and discussion
Conclusion
References

Abstract

Goats play an important role in Swazi custom and culture. However, their performance is limited by poor nutrition, especially during the dry winter months. Improving goat nutrition could therefore enhance their productivity and utility. This study involved a survey of goat production systems and an inventory of crop by-products in the small-scale farming sector. The study found cattle to be the dominant class of livestock, followed by goats, although both contributed minimally to the cash economy. The major factor affecting goat production was identified as feed shortage during winter. Several crop residues and agro-industrial by-products were identified as potential supplements. Their suitability for animal feeding is discussed.

Caractéristiques socio-économiques de l'alimentation des caprins au Swaziland

Résumé

Une large place est faite aux caprins dans les coutumes et la culture du Swaziland. Toutefois, ces animaux ont des performances faibles en raison de l'inadéquation de leur alimentation, notamment au cours des mois sers de l'hiver. Pour que s'améliorent leur productivité et leur utilité, il faut donc améliorer leur alimentation Dans le cadre de l'étude présentée ici, une enquête a été effectuée sur les systèmes d'élevage caprin, et les sous-produits de récolte disponibles au niveau de la petite exploitation agricole ont été inventoriés. Il ressort des résultats de cette enquête que le cheptel national est essentiellement constitué par des bovins, puis par des caprins, encore que la contribution de chacune de ces deux espèces à l'économie monétaire soit insignifiante. Le déficit fourrager d'hiver constitue le principal obstacle la production caprine. Plusieurs résidus de récolte et sous-produits agricoles susceptibles d'être utilisés comme compléments alimentaires ont été identifiés et sont examinés.

Introduction

Livestock have traditionally been an important component of the agricultural industry in Swaziland. In 1986 their production accounted for about 21% of the agricultural output, 5% of the GDP and nearly 3% of total exports (CSO, 1987). In 1990 there were 715,741 head of cattle, 416,166 goats, 20,436 sheep and 23,802 pigs (MOAC, 1991). The majority of these goats, cattle and sheep are reared under a traditional system of management characterised by overstocking, communal grazing and uncontrolled herding. This has led to poor livestock performance in the form of low calving percentage, high young mortality rates and slow growth rates. Lebbie and Manzini (1989) reported the following characteristics of the indigenous Nguni goats (averages): age at first kidding 301 ± 55; litter size 1.18 ± 0.29; weight at birth 1.9 ± 0.14 kg and a growth rate to three months of 68.2 g/day. This performance is generally poorer than those reported for indigenous goats elsewhere (Wilson, 1976; Khombe, 1985). Lebbie and Mastapha (1985) mainly attributed the sub-standard performance to poor nutrition, especially in winter when the quantity and quality of the feed from the natural rangeland are very low. An improvement in nutrition through strategic supplementation could therefore enhance the productivity of the goats.

Methodology

This study is the first phase of a research project being conducted under the African Small Ruminant Research Network on the use of crop residues and agro-industrial by-products by smallholder farmers in Swaziland. It involved a survey of goat production systems and an inventory of crop by-products, as well as the determination of their suitability for animal feeding.

A total of 121 small-scale farmers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Farmer distribution over three ecological zones of Swaziland is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Frequency distribution of the farmers interviewed across zones.

Zone	Number of farmers	Percentage
Highveld	30	24.8
Middleveld	45	37.2
Lowveld	46	38.0
Total	121	100.0

Results and discussion

The population of livestock in the homesteads surveyed is presented in Table 2.

Table 2. The population of animals in the homesteads surveyed.

Class of livestock	Number of animals/ homestead (x ± SE)		Number of homesteads	Percentage of homesteads
Cattle	18	11	103	85.1
Sheep	9	4	7	5.8
Goats	15	9	86	71.1
Pigs	3	1	30	24.8

SE = standard error.

Table 2 demonstrates the dominance of cattle in the rural Swazi farming system, followed by goats. Similar findings have been reported by de Vletter (1983). The commercial role of livestock at the household level is indicated in Table 3. The main source of income was from wage employment, followed by crop sales and traditional medicine. Cattle and goats contributed little to the household financially, confirming the general observation that livestock ownership in Swaziland tends to emphasise numbers rather than productive capacity and financial value. Goats are kept mainly for home consumption and to meet other socio-cultural needs. Only rarely do they contribute a useful source of cash. Nonetheless, a fairly large proportion of the rural community do keep goats (71.1%) and derive financial benefits (40.7%) from them (Tables 2 and 3).

Table 3. Sources of income for the rural households.

Income source	Mean income ranking*	Percent of households (N=113)
Wages	1.7	75.2
Gross sales of crops	2.0	64.6
Traditional medicine	2.0	14.2
Handicrafts	2.2	36.3
Sales of cattle	2.7	43.4
Others	2.7	23.9
Brewed beer	2.8	16.8
Sales of goats	2.9	40.7

* Highest income source scored 1 and lowest scored 5.

Farmers were asked to identify the major constraints to goat production. Their responses are shown in Table 4.

The most common problems associated with goat production were feed shortage in winter, followed by disease. However, more farmers reported winter feed problems with cattle than with goats (55.9 vs 13%). This perception may be true considering that, unlike cattle, goats are capable of browsing on shrubs and bushes which normally remain green during the winter season.

Table 4. Factors affecting goat production.

Factor	Mean factor ranking*	Percent of farmers (N=113)
Feed shortage in winter	1.4	83.2
Diseases	1.9	83.2
Labour shortage	2.1	82.3
Land shortage	2.2	78.8
Availability of good bucks	2.3	77.9
Accidents	2.3	81.4
Plant poisoning	2.6	77.9
Feed shortage in summer	2.6	76.1

* Ranking of problems: 1 = serious, 2 = mild, 3 = none.

Accessibility of the various feed resources to livestock during the winter season is shown in Table 5. Natural pastures, maize stover, maize cobs and browse constitute the bulk of winter feed in most homesteads. Apart from browse, the quality of these feed resources is known to be low and practical methods of improving their quality are being investigated. Identification and quality determination of the browse species are also being undertaken. Besides the feed resources shown in Table 5, some farmers were found to provide extra feed to their livestock. Some of these supplementary feeds are listed in Table 6.

Table 5. Accessibility of livestock to various feed resources in winter.

Feed resource	Number of homesteads (N=113)	Percentage
Natural grazing	112	98.2
Maize stover	107	94.7
Maize bran	24	22.9
Maize cobs	52	47.3
Sorghum stover	2	2.1
Bean haulms	5	5.3
Pumpkin residues	4	4.2
Sweet potato vines	1	1.1
Browse	55	56.7

Table 6. Agro-industrial by-product and supplement utilisation by livestock.

By-product or supplement utilised	Number of homesteads (N=110)	Percentage
Sugar-cane tops	4	3.6
Other by-products	4	3.6
Common salt	5	4.6
Rumevite mix	2	1.8
Molasses	3	2.8
Urea	2	1.8
Hay	2	1.8
None of the above.	88	75.5

Table 7. The potential of crop residues and agro-industrial by-products as feed for goats.

	By-product
	Maize stover	Sugar-cane tops	Pineapple waste	Citrus pulp
Where produced	rural homesteads	lowveld sugar estates	Malkerns area estates, farms	Malkerns factory
When produced	April to May	April to December	January to November	April to July
When available	April to July	April to December	January to December	April to October
Annual quantities produced (t)	154,800	38,000	24,000	3,000
Exploited commercially?	no	no	no	yes
Alternative uses	ploughed in otherwise no use	feed base with molasses	ploughed in or burnt	no use possibly silage
Problem as livestock feed	storage and social factors	removal from field end distribution	removal from field end distribution	none except transport

Source: Wickstead (1990) and Ogwang (1988).

Table 6 shows that the majority of farmers do not give their livestock any agro-industrial by-products as feed. It also shows the diversity of supplements that are available in Swaziland but which are currently under-utilised. The potential of some of these feed resources for use in goat production is summarised in Table 7.

The most critical period for grazing livestock in Swaziland is between May and September when many of the crop residues and agro-industrial by-products are available. However, the practical problems mentioned above need to be overcome and appropriate feeding strategies devised before farmers can be encouraged to use them.

Conclusion

Natural pastures, browse and maize stover are the most important component of goat diets in Swaziland. Goat owners generally invest minimally in livestock production. The animals are largely left to graze freely, with any supplementation consisting of cheap green feeds and crop residues. However, there is an immense potential for improving goat nutrition and therefore production by using crop by-products such as sugar-cane tops, pineapple waste and citrus pulp as feed supplements.

References

CSO (Central Statistical Office). 1987. Central Statistical Office, Mbabane, Swaziland.

Khombe C T. 1985. Environmental factors affecting the growth and viability of crossbred sheep and goats on range grazing in Zimbabwe. In: Wilson R T and Bourzat D (eds), Small ruminants in African agriculture. Proceedings of a conference held at ILCA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 30 September-4 October 1985. ILCA (International Livestock Centre for Africa), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. pp. 46-52.

Lebbie S H B and Manzini A T. 1989. The productivity of indigenous goats under traditional management in Swaziland. In: Wilson R T and Azeb Melaku (eds), African small ruminant research and development. Proceedings of a conference held at Bamenda, Cameroon, 18-28 January 1989. ILCA (International Livestock Centre for Africa), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. pp. 39-50.

Lebbie S H B and Mastapha P R. 1985. Goat production in the Swaziland middleveld. In: Wilson R T and Bourzat D (eds), Small ruminants in African agriculture. Proceedings of a conference held at ILCA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 30 September-4 October 1985. ILCA (International Livestock Centre for Africa), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. pp. 224-234.

MOAC (Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives). 1991. Annual Report. Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Mbabane, Swaziland.

Ogwang B H. 1988. Preliminary studies of crop residues as livestock feed on Swazi Nation Land. UNISWA Research Journal 1:14-21. University of Swaziland, Swaziland.

de Vletter F. 1983. The Swazi rural homestead. Social Science Research Unit, University of Swaziland, Kwaluseni, Swaziland.

Wickstead M. 1990. Mission report to Swaziland. Livestock Section, ODNRI (Overseas Development Natural Resources Institute), Chatham, UK.

Wilson R T. 1976. Studies on the livestock of Southern Darfur, Sudan. IV. Production traits in goats. Tropical Animal Health and Production 8:221-232.