Olufemi Oludimu
Department of Agricultural Economics
Obafemi Awolowo University
Ile-Ife Nigeria
ABSTRACT
A management package for dwarf goat production developed on-station at Ile-Ife, Nigeria, is now being tested on-farm at the village level. Among other issues, the project is investigating the zootechnical and socio-economic implications of changing from a traditional feeding regime based on roadside grass and household kitchen byproducts (cassava, yam and banana peelings, maize bran) to a diet of good quality browse (Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena leucocephala) and grass (Panicum maximum). While highlighting the favourable effects of a browse-based diet on animal performance, this paper draws attention to some socio-economic implications of adopting such a feeding regime. It is argued that factors to consider include the prevailing farming systems in each locality and the investments required, in terms of land and labour, for goat production in relation to competing enterprises.
RESUME
Gestion de la chèvre naine d'Afrique occidentale en région tropicale humide: évaluation socio-économique des régimes alimentaires
Un paquet technolgique élaboré en station à Ile Ife sur la gestion de la chèvre naine d'Afrique occidentale est actuellement en cours d'expérimentation en milieu réel. Entre autres questions, les travaux effectués étudient les conséquences zootechniques et socio-économiques du passage du mode d'alimentation traditionnel basé sur la divagation et les ordures ménagères (pelures de manioc et d'igname, son de maïs) à un régime alimentaire constitué de fourrages ligneux de qualité (Gliricidia sepium et Leucaena leucocephala) et de graminées (Panicum maximum). Après avoir souligné les avantages d'un régime à base de ligneux quant aux performances des animaux, cette étude souligne certaines des conséquences socio-économiques de l'adoption d'un tel système. Il est proposé, avant d'introduire un tel système, non seulement d'examiner de prés un certain nombre de paramètres, y compris le type de système en place, mais également de comparer les investissements en terre et en main-d'oeuvre nécessaires pour l'élevage caprin aux autres exigences éventuelles d'autres activités concurrentielles.
INTRODUCTION
Goats are an important and preferred source of meat in the humid tropics and particularly in southern Nigeria. To individual owners, goat rearing is also an important source of income. In a 1977 study of two villages in the humid tropical zone of southern Nigeria, Matthewman (1977) indicated that 91% of farmers interviewed gave cash income as the main reason for keeping animals. Okali and Sumberg (1985) also indicated that small ruminants are one of a limited number of sources of income large enough to be used for capital investment.
Given the importance of the goat to the socio-economic milieu of the rural population, a study of goat production management and feeding patterns in the humid tropics deserves attention. This paper examines some socio-economic considerations with respect to feed provision to West African Dwarf goats maintained under the extensive (traditional) and intensive (modern) management systems. The paper draws largely on the experience gathered from the West African Dwarf Goat (WADG) Research Project at Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE WADG PROJECT
The joint Nigerian/Dutch research project "Management of the West African Dwarf Goat in the Humid Tropics" began in August 1981 with on-station research at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach (animal science, plant science, agricultural economics and extension), the project came up with a management package for dwarf goat production. The package has elements in common with alley farming developed by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and with the goat improvement programme of the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), but differs from both by incorporating health and disease control with nutrition and management of the goats. The elements of the Ile-Ife package are:
Health: Animal vaccination against Peste de Petits Ruminants and quarterly dipping or washing with lindane solution against ectoparasites (mites, lice).
Nutrition: Based on roadside grass (Panicum maximum), browse products (Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena leucocephala) and industrial byproducts (brewers' dried grains) for critical periods.
Management: Housing in bamboo huts with slaked floors. Twice daily feeding of adults and growers on a group basis, with suckling kids supplemented in a creep feed area. Semi-controlled breeding, with bucks being rotated daily between pens with breedable females.
At present, the components of this package are being tested on-farm (Moll, 1989). The on-farm programme focuses on three broad topics:
· the actual performance of the various goat-keeping subsystems under village conditions· the possibilities various types of households have for the potential incorporation of any of the goat-keeping subsystems
· the actual acceptance of the various goat-keeping subsystems in the villages
One subsystem relates to goat feeding regimes (nutrition subsystem) which is the issue that is of particular interest to the present paper. In the next section, two feeding regimes are identified and their essential characteristics discussed.
FEEDING REGIMES
Traditionally, goats in south-west Nigeria are free-roaming in an extensive management system. In this system, forage crops are not grown to support the animals and the animals' manure is not returned for cultivation of food crop plots. Thus, the animals appear to be poorly integrated in the prevailing farming system. Moll (1989) laments the non-use of manure from goats and argues that if manure from goats is used properly, it can complement the production of valuable crops like vegetables and fruits.
Under the extensive management system, goats scavenge all day to feed themselves; at best, they are offered feed supplements such as kitchen refuse, dried cassava, cassava/yam/banana peelings, bean husks and maize chaff. The only major investment is in acquiring new stock, and returns from this system are low.
Drawing on a study undertaken by ILCA in 1983 (Mack, 1983) and on-station data obtained from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Huijsman (1987) remarks that there is a substantial increase in reproductive performance of dwarf goats when the animals are kept under the high intensity model. The productivity (liveweight production per doe) more than doubles from 10.9 kg liveweight/doe per year in the low intensity (extensive) model to 24.2 kg in the high intensity (intensive) model.
Huijsman (1987) indicates that "this increase is due to a higher average litter size at birth, higher survival rates of weaners and growers and a substantial increase in liveweight of growers at 12 months" (see Table 1).
The other feeding regimes that have been advocated, therefore, are the intensive types which include the cut-and-carry method. In this procedure, leguminous trees planted in alley farms or intensive feed gardens provide a high-protein diet to small ruminants. Devised by IITA, alley farming involves growing arable crops in alleys between cultivated hedgerows of leguminous shrubs such as Leucaena leucocephala or Gliricidia sepium in a system that allows hedgerow foliage to be removed and fed to livestock without adverse effects on crop yields. The grazed fallow system, on the other hand, was conceived by ILCA and consists of a rotation of blocks of alleys with three to five years of alley cropping followed by two to three years of grazing; representing a high degree of integration of crop and livestock production. Both of these devices demand considerable management skills to ensure success.
Table 1. Reproductive performance data of dwarf goats in humid south-west Nigeria
|
Performance indices |
Low intensity model |
High intensity model |
|
Average litter size (kids/litter) |
1.50 |
1.74 |
|
Parturition interval (days) |
259 |
267 |
|
Annual reproductive rate (kids/doe per year) |
2.1 |
2.4 |
|
Survival rate to weaning (%) |
67 |
75 |
|
Survival rate 3-12 months (%) |
77 |
95 |
|
Effective kidding rate (kids surviving to 12 months) |
1.09 |
1.69 |
|
Liveweight at 12 months (kg) |
10.0 |
14.3 |
|
Productivity (liveweight production per doe per year) (kg) |
10.9 |
24.3 |
Source:
Huijsman (1987)
At Ile-Ife, a modified form (probably requiring less managerial capabilities) involves the establishment of intensive feed gardens consisting solely of a mixture of Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium close to the homestead. Planting close to the homestead reduces the time needed to carry the browse to the animals, but requires considerable labour, not only to tend the gardens but also to ensure that adequate quantities of browse are continually supplied (physically carried) to the goats in confinement. Given this requirement, the system has to be viewed within the context of the resource base and resource utilisation in particular farming systems.
GOAT-KEEPING IN THE IFE/EDE FARMING SYSTEMS FRAMEWORK
A farming systems approach should be followed when appraising the acceptability potentials of an intensive goat feeding regime. The approach should centre on the role of animal husbandry with regard to the availability and use of resources, while paying special attention to those components of the farming system that are either competing with or complementary to rearing the animals. This section examines the availability and utilisation of land and labour required for goat-keeping in the Ife/Ede zone of south-west Nigeria.
The case study is the group of six WADG on-farm research villages, three each in Ife South and Ede Local Government Areas. In five of the villages (Awo, Ikotun and Ojo in Ede and Toro and Akeredolu in If e South), goats are allowed to roam freely. In a sixth (newly selected) village, Ogbagba in If e South, the movement of goats is restricted under a local regulation because of the damage done to standing crops and other agricultural products. Farmers who have to confine their goats now contend with the issues of land and labour availability and use.
Availability and use of land
At present, availability of land does not seem to be a constraint to farming. During interviews conducted in 1989, farmers in all villages except Toro and Ojo said they had surplus land (see Alofe et al, 1989). In fact, at Akeredolu, the government was able to acquire vast areas of land to start a big project, the school-leavers farming scheme under the National Directorate of Employment. But although land is generally available, its acquisition, especially in the Ede area, still follows the traditional rules whereby land transactions require approval from the village chief.
In terms of use, the traditional shifting cultivation practice, involving essentially the growing of food crops, is gradually being replaced by a more permanent system of cultivation involving kola, cocoa and oil palm trees. Such a change is being facilitated with the adoption of the government-sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme (since 1986) with its export crop orientations. With the development of favourable prices for export crop products, the tendency is for farmers to devote more cultivable land to cocoa and other export crops, with feed gardens being a poor competitor.
The location of a feed garden also matters. Usually, it is advantageous that the feed garden be located as close as possible to the goat paddock near the homestead. Field investigations reveal that plots close to the homestead are planted to food crops by farmers whose ability to travel far into the fields is now limited due to old age. Thus feed gardens may have to compete with food crops.
Availability and use of labour
Availability of labour is diminishing in the villages as able-bodied youths leave to seek city employment and are only partly replaced by migrant labourers and settlers from the Middle-Belt. To produce food for family living, village women now spend more and more time on the farm in addition to their traditional tasks of processing and trading in food products. The question then arises: Can the women who traditionally keep goats under the extensive system still cope with the higher labour requirements of an intensive goat-keeping system?
In the study areas, hired labour is used at peak periods of land preparation, weeding and harvesting. Furthermore, exchange labour (farmers assisting each other in turn) is used in particular places. Hired/exchange labour is used extensively on food crop and export crop farm operations especially during the months of April to July.
Respondents mentioned that during the slack months they engage in other occupations; for men these include palm-wine tapping, bricklaying and blacksmithing, and for women, processing of oil palm, rice and beans into various products. For all villages, except Akeredolu, many families also have members working off the farm, outside their villages. Thus, feeding the goats from feed gardens has to compete for labour with food crop production in peak periods and with secondary occupations all the year round.
CONCLUSIONS
Under conditions of scarce family labour resources, the incremental return to an additional labour investment provides an important indicator of the economic attractiveness of such an investment. The incremental returns per labour hour for moving from the extensive feeding regime must be higher than the average wage rate prevailing in the locality. Alternatively, intermediate regimes of feeding the goats must be found which involve minimal land and labour investments.
REFERENCES
Alofe C O. Oludimu O L, Oyeyemi D O and Platteuw W L. 1989. An exploratory survey of six villages in Ede and Oranmiyan Central. Technical Report No 3. West African Dwarf Goat Research Project, Department of Animal Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Huijsman A. 1987. Prospects of intensive goat rearing in the humid zone of Nigeria. WADG [West African Dwarf Goat] Project Report. Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Mack S D. 1983. Evaluation of the productivities of West African Dwarf Goats and Sheep. Humid Zone Programme Document No 7. ILCA (International Livestock Centre for Africa), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Matthewman R W. 1977. A survey of small livestock production at the village level in the derived savanna and lowland forest zones of south-west Nigeria. Study No 24, Department of Agriculture and Horticulture, University of Reading, Reading, UK.
Moll H A J. 1989. On farm research programme of the West African Dwarf Goat Project: Socio-economic activities, November 1989. Discussion Paper on the West African Dwarf Goat Project, Department of Animal Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Okali C and Sumberg J E. 1985. Sheep and goats, men and women: Household relations and small ruminant development in south-west Nigeria. Agricultural Systems 18:39-59
