Development and implementation of a pilot village-based goat improvement scheme

Abstract

Community based goat breed improvement was established to improve the productivity performance of goat through selective breeding and to demonstrate community based utilization and conservation of local breed. The community based breeding with 56 participant farmers have been established since March 2012 at Dinzaz Village Gumara Makseget watershed. 12 bucks user group were established for easy management of the selected bucks. The data were recorded through trained enumerators and best bucks were selected and distributed for buck user group. A total of 57 best bucks were selected in five round selection based on their breeding values of six months weight and farmers selection criteria. Unselected bucks were culled through marketing and castration. The analysis of the performance data showed improvement in growth performance. For instance, there is the improvement of birth in 0.21kg (2.67 kg at the beginning and 2.88kg at the third year). Successful implementation of, data recording, buck selection and management and cooperative establishment are the good indicators of the sustainability and further scale up of village selection scheme.