Contribution of crossbred goats to milk production and social welfare in Burundi

B. Rey

International Livestock Centre for Africa P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Introduction
Development projects
Goat research activities in Burundi
The goat development project in Ngozi
Data analysis
Observations
Constraints and difficulties
Evaluation of the research programme
References

Introduction

The Burundi highland plateau lies to the east of the Zaire-Nile line, at an average altitude of 1800 m above sea level. The highland is part of the Great Lakes Highlands which comprise Burundi and Rwanda, the Kivu region of Zaire, the Kigezi region of Uganda and the Buta region of Tanzania. A major characteristic of this area is the variable but generally high population density (an average of 150 people/km² with up to 400 people/km² in some districts), resulting in very small farms.

The increasing population density has forced the expansion of arable cropping into lower (Imbo plane of Burundi) and higher altitudes (only suitable for tea and pyrethrum). Within the agricultural systems, notable modifications include shorter fallow periods, cropping on steep land and in the swamps in dry seasons. The trend is towards more intensive agricultural production systems.

This evolution has progressively pushed cattle out of the farming system as a result of the shrinking of grazing areas. In Burundi, the number of cattle decreased at a rate of 6.8% per annum between 1975 and 1987, falling to 479,000 in 1987. Over the same period the number of goats increased by 2.2% annually to 723,000 in 1987, while the number of sheep increased by 1.2% annually to 329,000 in 1987 (ILCA, 1991). Despite the prestige attached to cattle ownership, cattle have been replaced by small species (goats, rodents and poultry). Jones and Egli (1984) noted that there was no apparent need to intervene in the replacement of cattle with goats, but suggested the need to improve production systems through improved animal health, breeding, feeding and marketing.

Development projects

There is a general trend towards the promotion of crossbred goats, and particularly dairy crossbreds, in the East African highlands, where the population density and pressure on land are increasing. Development agencies have taken a variety of approaches, giving priority to either research (Kenya) or development (Burundi). A particular emphasis has been placed on "dual-purpose" (meat and milk) goats obtained through crossbreeding with exotic breeds (Table 1).

Table 1. Goat research and development projects in eastern Africa.

Country	Location	Type	Technical specificities	Commencement
Kenya	Maseno	R	Crossbreeding with Toggenburg creation of a synthetic dual-purpose breed and on-farm research	1981
Tanzania	Morogoro	R	Crossbreeding with Norwegian Landrace and on-farm research	1983
Malawi	Bunda	R/D	Crossbreeding with Boer and Alpine selection of Small East African Goats	1983
Rwanda	Kigali	D	Crossbreeding with Alpine goats	1987
Burundi	Ngozi	D	Crossbreeding with Alpine goats	1980
Ethiopia	Harar	D	Crossbreeding with Anglo-Nubian	1989

Source Wilson et al (1990).

Goat research activities in Burundi

A national network on small ruminants was created in 1987, to link research and development projects in Burundi. The coordination of this network was under the auspices of the national university (Facagro), which has a national mandate to conduct research on small ruminants. ISABU (Institut des sciences agronomiques du Burundi) is responsible for cattle research projects.

At the university station in Maramvya, several research projects are in progress, including the characterisation of the Small East African goat population in Burundi and experiments to determine the optimum use of Leucaena, Panicum maximum, Pennisetum purpureum and rice straw in goat diets. Monitoring of the health status of goats on farms around Maramvya has started recently.

A package of improved does (on loan), improved feed resources and disease control was proposed in 1986 and tested on 21 farms in Mutaho.

The goat development project in Ngozi

This development project started in 1980 with funding from the German agency for technical cooperation (GTZ). The project target group was 14 "communes" in an area of 2000 km². Some 3500 farmers were registered and took their does to buck centres. The aim of the project was to improve the farmers' diet and nutritional status by increasing the supply of goat milk and meat and to generate income. The strategy was to improve soil fertility by the application of manure (Schultze and Ngendahimana, 1986). Schmidt (1990) stated that goats seemed to offer opportunities of increasing the availability of meat and milk.

The project staff decided that the best method to maximise goat production was to crossbred the local goat with Alpine bucks. This genetic mixture has proved to increase milk yield and body size. The project set up 40 buck centres to which farmers could bring their does for mating. More than 8000 matings were recorded each year in 1988, 1989 and 1990. The project believes that a third to half of the goats in the three "communes" closest to the station are crossbreds.

The project set up an extension unit to encourage farmers to participate, and also promoted a package consisting of improved housing, management, fodder crops and disease control. In order to commercialise milk production the project built a factory to process milk into cheese and organised a marketing channel for the delivery of milk from farms to the factory. The milk factory is now buying fresh milk from some 350 farmers, who deliver 42,000 litres of milk annually (Schmidt, 1990).

Objectives of the research project

In Ngozi, crossbred goats have been adopted by a large number of farmers over several years and this area offers a good opportunity to carry out a case study to examine the social and technical impact of these animals in a crop-based farming system. A comparison of the data collected in Ngozi with information available from similar sites in East Africa would give it a regional focus.

ILCA's interest in the project was therefore twofold; to determine how the livestock system fitted into the farming system and to identify opportunities for increasing the productivity of livestock in the system. The work had the following specific objectives:

· To identify the role of crossbred dairy goats in a farming system characterised by limited farm resources, particularly land and capital. Livestock either compete for or add value to some of these farm resources;

· To determine the optimum level of crossbreeding at current management levels;

· To determine management practices for the improved genotype and to optimise input/output to ensure economic viability.

Organisation of the research project

Institutional framework. This research was developed in collaboration between ILCA and the Ngozi goat project. Its thrust is on technology transfer but it has a minor component of research on breeding on-station. It is unfortunate that the goat project has no formal linkages with the Buyenzi SRD (Regional Society for Development), which concentrates on coffee and food crop extension.

The project staff are closely involved in the day-to-day implementation of the data collection and management, while ILCA staff regularly visit the project to set up and follow the data collection process (sampling, data measurement techniques and data validation). The Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Burundi mostly deals with small ruminant research in Burundi and the faculty is consequently a principal contact. The university facilitates the involvement of graduate students in the project.

The research project was centred on flock monitoring over an initial two-year period. In order to have an understanding of the roles of the introduced crossbred goats, the sample of farmers included those participating in the goat development project and non-participating farmers. This allows for a comparison between the two groups. The differences in performance of the Small East African Goat and the introduced crossbreds indicate the benefits or losses of the crossbreeding programme.

The survey attempts to identify the farmers' objectives in adopting crossbred dairy goats. The prevalence of endoparasites and goat production indices of fecundity, milk production and the growth rate of crossbred and pure Alpine goats kept on-station and on-farm are recorded.

Implementation of the research project

A total of 240 farmers were selected, comprising 120 farmers randomly selected from the list of farmers who had brought does for mating and 120 farmers who had never taken their does to be mated. In addition, the development project included all 53 farmers who had been chosen to multiply crossbred animals.

The problems of access to remote farms led to the dropping of 27 non-participating farmers from the survey after a period of six months.

Initial survey (December 1989 - January 1990)

The initial visit was at the farm/flock level. All animals were ear-tagged and identified according to their genotype, sex and age. In addition, an inventory of farm resources (land, labour, capital items) was taken and production levels were determined.

Continuous survey (January 1990 - June 1992)

Fortnightly visits were made to record major management decisions, e.g. feeding and health care and flock movements due to births, deaths, purchases or sales. Data on milk off-take per doe, kid growth and adult weight were also recorded.

Farm budget (July 1990 - July 1991)

Data were collected on 25 farms to establish a farm budget and to determine the share of farm income linked with goat milk and meat production.

Parasitology

This component of the study could not be conducted because of the shortage of staff able to conduct egg counts in Ngozi.

Informal survey techniques

At the initial stage the questionnaires and data collection formats were developed. The information collated was nevertheless minimal compared with the knowledge of project staff. At the later stages of the study, informal visits allowed for the testing of hypotheses resulting from data analysis (e.g. labour allocation by farmers), which were not initially planned.

Data analysis

As soon as the initial survey was completed a comparison was made of the farms adopting and not adopting crossbred goats and the farming systems were described (Rey and Jacob, 1991). The latter was used to select the farms where the farm budgets were monitored.

After two years of continuous monitoring, data were analysed and interpreted to assess farmers decisions on goats (sales, milking, mating strategies etc). This was done to identify components of productivity where improvements could be made and to compare the on-farm performances of different genotypes. The results of this analysis have not yet been published.

Observations

· Farmers who adopted crossbred dairy goats appear to have a farm structure (farm size and type, family size and flock size) representative of the average goat farmer in the region. Farmers who were chosen as "breeders" had larger farms and adequate family labour force. This again demonstrates that it is commonly the more well-to-do farmers who are most willing to adopt new ideas.

· Some farmers established fodder crops before adopting crossbred animals, as recommended by the project.

· The initial survey indicated a decrease in off-farm employment. However, livestock income (mostly linked to milk sales) was not higher than the off-farm income of nonparticipating farmers.

· Disposal of goats was mainly through sales; very few animals were slaughtered for home consumption.

· Goat mortality during the rainy season had a heavy toll on flock productivity, while reproductive performances were close to on-station estimates.

· Over two years of monitoring have shown that participating farmers have maintained the same proportion of goats of the local breed and have back-crossed the Alpine-Small East African does with Small East African bucks, probably to limit the negative traits of the crossbreds with a high level of Alpine blood.

It is apparent that the project in Burundi has been isolated and has had little interaction with similar programmes in Kenya (SR-CRSP) and Rwanda (Kigali Est project). However, lately contacts with these two projects have developed.

Constraints and difficulties

Development projects based on external donor funds are often operated only for a limited time. This is the case of the Ngozi project, where GTZ is planning to withdraw and the Burundi Government plans to continue the project on a considerably reduced budget. The first casualty of the financial squeeze has been the breeding of crossbred goats, which was terminated in 1991. This will make it impossible to conduct a meaningful comparison of the performance of genotypes on the project farms and of farmers' flocks.

Development projects aim at making changes in the existing farming systems. As long as research respects this status quo, there will be no conflict of interests. However, problems arise when researchers want to formally test a change, such as a veterinary treatment or breeding programme. The development project is concerned that interventions being tested by researchers may be confused with development interventions, especially if the results are negative.

The existing farming systems in the target area are integrated crop-livestock systems. However, the institutions promoting development, e.g. SRD, concentrate on coffee and forbid intercropping with forage crops. Similarly, ILCA's mandate requires its researchers to concentrate on animal production systems. For the future there is a need to have a whole-farm approach in order to integrate the various components.

Evaluation of the research programme

The research programme currently carried out in Burundi has one important objective: to work in collaboration with a development programme. This facilitates the setting up of research on-farm and defines the target group for technology diffusion. This institutional set-up permits the existence of an effective triangular relationship between research, development and farmers. Systems research in that context can be considered as a means to advise development efforts.

Although lessons from a site-specific study might not be applicable beyond the project, it is important to make the results available to those considering similar development projects elsewhere. GTZ, which funded the project in Ngozi, is considering starting a similar project in Kenya. ILCA has a comparative advantage in integrating results from various projects and disseminating the information. The value of the information can be enhanced if modelling and simulation are developed on the basis of research in other comparable locations.

References

ILCA (International Livestock Centre for Africa). 1991. A handbook of African livestock statistics. LED Working Document 15. LED (Livestock Economics Division), ILCA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Jones W I and Egli R. 1984. Farming systems in Africa. World Bank Technical Paper 27. World Bank, Washington, DC, USA.

Rey B and Jacob U. 1991. Farm structure and participation in the Ngozi goat crossbreeding project in Burundi. In: Proceedings of the 9th SR-CRSP annual meeting, Nairobi, Kenya, 8-9 March 1990.

Schmidt U. 1990. Evolution et résultats de neuf années de projet germano-burundais dans le cadre de la coopération technique. Capricorne 3 (1).

Schultze A and Ngendahimana S. 1986. Expérience du projet caprins Ngozi au Burundi. In: Atelier de travail sur les petite ruminants de la CEPGL, Séminaire de Bukavu, 8-10 janvier 1985.

Wilson R T. Araya A and Dominique S. 1990. Répertoire des projets de recherche et de développement caprins et ovins en Afrique. Draft. CIPEA (Centre international pour l'élevage en Afrique), Addis-Abeba (Ethiopie).