Abstract

Sheep fattening in Ethiopia has been recognized as a potentially profitable activity that enhances the income of smallholder farmers. Under traditional and extensive production systems, the level of production and productivity of sheep in Ethiopia is generally low. Feeding shortage is one of the limiting factors for increasing the production and productivity of small ruminants in most of the agro-ecological zones in Ethiopia. Diseases are the major constraints to improve small ruminant’s production and productivity. Health problems cause high mortality and reduced productivity and growth performance resulting in reducing the output per animal and flock off-take rates. It describes the challenges and opportunities likely to slow or enhance productivity in sheep fattening activities in Ethiopia and the prospects of improving sustained productivity. The results of action research showed, fattening of rams can commence as early as three months of age and the round cycle was three times in a year due to the addition of different values. Sheep fattening is constrained by feed scarcity, market access, poor husbandry practices, disease prevalence, and labour shortage. Thus, government as well as kebele development professionals should focus on key constraints to increase sheep fattening production, value addition, and marketing in the study area.

1. Introduction

Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa with an estimated number of cattle 57.83, sheep 28.89, goats 10.37, equine 1.23, camel 56.87, and poultry\chicken 10 million ¹. Sheep have great environmental adaptability, a short production cycle, faster growth rates, easy management, low investment capital, and low feed requirement as compared to large ruminants ². Small ruminants account on average for 40% of the cash income and 19% of the total value of subsistence food derived from all livestock production. They also contribute a quarter of the domestic meat consumption; about half of the domestic wool requirements; about 40% of fresh skins and 92% of the value of semi-processed skin and hide export trade ³. Sheep are the major economically important in rural parts of Ethiopia playing an important role in the livelihood of resources for poor farmers ⁴.

Fattening has been defined as an intensive feeding of highly nutritious feed to promote fast growth and fat deposition to achieve desired carcass growth and quality ⁵. Sheep fattening in the Kaffa Zone has been recognized as a potentially profitable activity that enhances the income of smallholder farmers ⁶. Sheep fattening production is a major component of the livestock sector in Kaffa, smallholder farmers and pastoralists depend on small ruminants for much of their livelihood, often to a greater extent than on cattle, since sheep are generally owned by the poorer sectors of the community ⁷.

Under traditional production system, the level of production and productivity of sheep fattening in Adiyo District is generally low ⁸. In lack of well-functioning marketing systems that effectively link the many smallholder producers and their cooperatives with domestic and international markets affect the performance of the existing sheep marketing system which is the main constraint of the sheep value chain. Such systems can be applied to sheep as they can easily adapt to an intensive system of production under feedlots ⁶.

Fattening programs aim to realize the maximum growth rate and higher carcass yields in a minimum period, which would raise production per unit of land and the value of the livestock. This could be an economically viable strategy compared to systems where animals kept for long periods on sub-optimal levels of feeding with consequent cyclic changes in weight gain. Sheep fattening is the leading small ruminant production specifically in Bekiyo Bekit Kebele, Adiyo District, and generally in the Kaffa Zone. The ruminant product is used for household consumption and ultimate source of generating income for smallholder farmers. Sheep is very desiccated small ruminants that produced from many years ago, and still now rural family apprentices it. Since it introduced, has popularity and well adapted to the agro-ecological and environmental condition of the study area, the generating average income from sheep fattening is below the potential.

Current carcasses yield of sheep in the study area was on average 15kg\head of sheep producers. Improving carcass yield results in more meat available for domestic consumption/export and directly increases producer incomes. Short term intensive feeding using locally available feedstuffs is a strategy that can be employed to increase animal live weights and subsequent carcass yields. Short-term intensive feeding before the sale is economically more feasible than the current systems where animals are kept for long periods on maintenance level feeding. Cost-benefit analyses of short term fattening compared to maintenance feeding for extended periods show that short term fattening can be a viable business venture. This study had its predetermined objectives and aims that it initially sought to the performance of sheep under different feeding strategies, such as different types and levels of supplementation, the different proportion of supplementary ingredients and different basal feeds, age and weight at the onset of fattening, length of fattening, target weights associated feeding management and housing practices were considered.

According to the Adiyo District livestock and fishery resource development office ⁹ formally collected unpublished information shows the current yield of carcass production is 15kg\head of sheep is being produced from the potential of the area 20kg\head of sheep due to several problems such as shortage of feed; lack of separate housing; lack of improved breed and species selection; management (poor grazing, lack of vaccination, outbreak of diseases); length of fattening; poor husbandry practices; lack of cooperation; lack of finance to buy inputs in time; lack of product value addition and its marketing linkages and thus, the summation of these conditions lead to low yield per head of sheep and carcass utilization.

Therefore, the objective of the designed study was to increase the productivity of carcass yield for 110 selected participants from the yield of carcass 15kg\head of sheep producers to 20kg\head of sheep producers in the study area; to improve product quality through improving feeding and management of the 110 selected participants, to link farmers’ cooperative, access to market and identifying time and place where the product has to be sold of the 110 selected participants as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of sheep fattening production, value addition, and marketing through field day result demonstrations within participatory extension method among 110 farmers in the study area.

2. Review of Related Literature

Several theories have been advanced as to the time and the routes by which sheep were introduced into Ethiopia. African sheep are thought to be of Near Eastern origin ¹⁰. The earliest sheep in Africa were thin-tailed, hairy, and introduced to East Africa. The second wave of sheep introduction to Africa constitutes fat-tailed sheep entering North Africa via the Isthmus of Suez straits and East Africa via the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb ¹¹. Accordingly, African sheep have been traditionally classified based on their type of tail ^{10, 11}. Ethiopia is believed to be one of the major gateways for domestic sheep migration from Asia to Africa ¹².

Ethiopia has a vast genetic resource of sheep. Although in the country as many as 14 sheep breeds/types have been identified so far, sizable populations of sheep are nondescript due to indiscriminate breeding and mixing of breeds. They are widely distributed across the major agro-ecological zones and geographical regions. About 75% of the sheep population inhabited the highland part of the country while the remaining 25% are distributed in the lowlands ¹³. Indigenous sheep genetic resources have developed specific adaptations to survive and produce under adverse local environmental conditions (climatic stresses), poor quality feed, seasonal feed and water shortage, endemic disease and parasite challenge that make them suitable for use in the traditional, low-input production system ¹⁴. As a result, they are less subjected to selection for functional traits and their productivity is low.

Most of the investigations done up to now have been carried out on research stations, on-farm performance studies are very few. This in turn affects the understanding of the factors which influence sheep production at the farm level and also the introduction of specific interventions by development organizations. According to the review by ¹⁵, there are six recognized indigenous sheep breed types in the country which falls into three breed groups: the fat-tailed hair type, the fat-tailed coarse wool sheep and the fat-rumped hair sheep. ¹⁶ classified the sheep population of the Amhara region based on their geographical location into four major clusters. For a long past, the Bonga sheep breed was considered the same breed as the Horro sheep breed. The same study identified Bonga and Horro as separate breeds out of the cluster. Horro breed is the most dominant sheep in the western part of the country. Bonga sheep have widely distributed in the southwest parts of the country in wet highland ecologies.

Input supply includes selection and distribution of breeding rams, provision of veterinary services and improved husbandry skills (through training on improved animal husbandry practices in the areas of feeds and feeding management, housing management and animal health management). Breeding rams are produced by the community-based Bonga sheep breed improvement cooperatives and selected by the committee identified from the members of the cooperative and the research staff of Bonga Agricultural Research Center (BARC). Veterinary services and training on improved animal husbandry are provided by the staff of Bonga Agricultural Research Center (BARC). The cooperatives have a role in the supply and Bonga Agricultural Research Center (BARC) certify of improved rams in the study area and distribute rams to other areas of the country. There are ample sources of animal feed in the study area. Natural grazing is the dominant feed resource. In addition to grazing, some farmers’ uses beverage end products (Atella), false banana (inset, kocho), and food left for fattening purpose. While improved forage planting and purchase concentrates are not adopted in the area.

Sheep value chains include all inputs and services that enable live sheep production through transporting, processing and marketing of outputs, to the creation of added value products such as meat through consumption of the animal source foods and related products. Value chains also include the institutional and governance arrangements that enable these systems to function. The study on sheep value chains has identified the core functions, actors, market routes, market channels, constraints, and existing opportunities recommendations on interventions at each node of the value chain. The core functions in the sheep value chain in the Kaffa Zone includes: input supply, production, marketing, processing and consumption, thus different activities were performed by the different functions ¹⁷.

Marketing includes moving products from producers to consumers and comprises exchange activities of buying and selling, the physical activities designed to give the product increased time, place and form utility, and the associated functions of financing, risk-bearing and dissemination of information to participants in the marketing process ¹⁸. Farmers need to be aware of the preferred characteristics of animals as well as price patterns so that they can plan breeding and fattening programmes and breed selection consistent with the best seasonal prices 11 and consumers' preferences ¹⁹. Alleviating constraints to the export market and domestic trade and market structure increases the welfare of smallholder producers, urban consumers, and improves the national balance of payments ²⁰. This revolution presents new and expanding market opportunities for smallholder livestock producers. Potential production and market opportunities for small ruminant meat have not been exploited because of scant knowledge of small ruminant demand patterns ¹⁹. To shift production from subsistence to a more commercial outlook is especially important to describe and intervening aspects of marketing infrastructure and facilities, market channels and outlets, buyer preferences for live animals and their meats, major market players, government intervention, and role of the private sector ²¹.

According to ²⁰ the livestock marketing structure of Ethiopia follows a four-tier system (Figure 1). The main actors of the tier are local farmers and rural traders/rural assemblers who transact at the farm level. Those small traders from different corners bring their 12 animals to the local market (2^nd tier). Traders/wholesalers purchase a few large animals or a fairly large number of small animals for selling to the secondary markets. In the secondary market (3^rd tier), both smaller and larger traders operate and traders (wholesalers or retailers) and butchers from terminal markets come to buy animals. In the terminal markets (4^th tier), big traders and butcher (wholesalers or retailers) transact a larger number of mainly slaughter type animals. Consumers get meat through the purchase of the animals from terminal markets and slaughter at home or they may get meat from markets or they may access from butchers who process the meat via abattoirs. Livestock markets are generally under the control of local authorities. Market locations in primary and secondary markets are usually not fenced; there are no permanent animal routes and no feed and watering infrastructures. Yet buyers and sellers are subjected to various service charges by the local authorities as well as other bodies ²⁰.

Enough information is crucial to producers, whole sellers, and consumers to help them make decisions whether to buy and sell ²². In general, information is required on prices, traded or available quantities, forecasts of future supplies and demand, and general market conditions. Factors affecting market supply as measured by the number offered include high demand during religious festivals, lambing season, quality and quantity of grazing as well as cash needs for crop inputs and later food purchase before harvesting ²³.

3. Research Methodology

Adiyo Kaka is one of the districts in the Southwest Region of Ethiopia. The name Adiyo Kaka derived from the province Manjo of the Kingdom of Kaffa; however, the province of Manjo lay within the boundaries of neighboring Gimbo, while Adiyo Kaka occupies the lands of the Gallo province of the former kingdom. Part of the Kaffa Zone, Adiyo Kaka is bordered on the South by Tello, on the Southwest by Decha, on the West by Gimbo, on the North by the Gojeb River which separates it from the Oromia Region, and on the East by the Konta Zone.

Adiyo District is located at 505 Km distance from Addis Abeba, the capital city of Ethiopia, and 65 km away from Bonga town the capital city of Kaffa Zone. Astronomically, the district occupies 7⁰26^ˈN latitude and 36⁰47ˈE longitude ²⁴. The highest altitude of the district is 2800 and the lowest 1500 meters above sea level. The total area coverage of the district is 102,723 hectares and its land use and land cover distribution are, cultivated land covers 70%, grazing land covers 21%, and 9% covers unusable land, which is neither cultivated, nor grazed ²⁵. According to ²⁶, the average annual temperature ranges from 360 c to 3°C while the average annual rainfall varies between 1600 and 2200 mm ²⁵. Agro-ecologically, 20.45% highland, 61.53% midland and 18.02% is lowland. Livestock rearing was a livelihood activity in which households engaged as a source of food, cash income, and draft power in the study area. Livestock rearing is one of the livestock rearing components that are practiced by farmers at the village and household level. The total estimated livestock habitats are 3,643,336 cattle, 2,034,985 sheep, 1,043,209 goats, 225,149 horses, 111,574 mules, 112,575 donkeys, 5,330,042, poultry and 561,990 honeybee families ^{9, 25}.

Bekiyo Bekit Kebele was selected purposively as the author has been working as an agricultural extension expert in the area. Moreover, the kebele has different problems that affecting sheep fattening production, value addition, and marketing than the others. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the participated farmers. In Bekiyo Bekit Kebele there were 300 household heads (HHH) and out of these, 150 are sheep fatteners .i.e. is the sample frame for the study. From these target population, by using a lottery sampling selection system, a sample size of 110 framers were selected as representative respondents for the survey, and they selected for production, value addition, and marketing objectives. Moreover, 30 Household Heads (HHHs) (18 female headed households and 12 male headed households) were selected for learning objective as they are administration representative (Development team leaders) of farmers in that kebele and believed to disseminate the knowledge they gained from the result demonstrations.

In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data were used. The data collection was conducted before and after the implementation of the project. The quantitative primary data were collected from sampled households, and data generated by Rapid Appraisal (need assessment survey) during last summer were also utilized. Moreover, focus group discussions and personal observation were used to augment quantitative information. Major sources of data were local farmers (producers), community leaders, and development agents. The qualitative primary data include criteria for technology selection, breed sourcing, advantages, and disadvantages of different breed's source, reasons for the improvement of the local fattening system into the modern technology-based sheep fattening, opportunities for new agricultural technology complementarities and problems that emerged following new fattening technology were collected accordingly. Secondary data sources utilized were documents from district livestock and fishery resources development office as well as agriculture and rural development office and other related institutions in the kebele. These data were collected mainly through interviewing.

After collecting all required information, the data were entered into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet version 2010 and checked for errors. Then the data were analyzed through using SPSS version 20.0 and the result presented in the form of frequencies, percentages or proportion as well as tabular presentation. Qualitative data were analyzed through explanations and narrations. For data analysis and interpretation 95% confidence level and 5% level of precision so that p-value (< 0.05) was considered as significant.

Materials: During the project activity from the beginning up to the end of the project period the materials used were meter, megaz (sow), digger, woficho for field preparation, and a digital camera for gathering information.

Inputs: Inputs used for this action research were improved sheep breed (Bonga), local feeds (godere, boiled inset sir, banana, and salt).

Figure 5 indicated constructed sheep fattening house which has been constructed from locally available materials for free of costs.

During the action research operation periods; the researcher made a farm visit on the target farmers’ farm individually. Target farmers home were visited and monitored to evaluate their performance, as well as to supervise the status of the fattened sheep, and finally to give technical support.

This method was used when a selection of participant farmers was made, during problem identification and prioritization, during different data collection and at the time of training.

Training: The training was focused on having full knowledge and skill about the technology; now knowing their previous attitude and experience on the technology and to create sustainability of the technology, finally to solve the problems that they already faced. Even more, the training was mainly to increase the capability of the farmers on the introduced technologies. Before the training was given, the participant farmers’ knowledge and skill were measured. After the training importance was defined, the training course was designed and developed; the training was given with the integration of different stakeholders with the help of the district agricultural and rural development office. The training was covered both theoretical and practical sessions. During the theoretical training, part the farmers got the knowledge and the skill from the given lesson, similarly the theoretical part was covered with the help of different teaching aid like; blackboard and brochure dissemination.

Field day: The main purpose of the program was other than, participate in the farmers around the task area, introduce a new technology, to exchange experience from the performed demonstration plots. The field day was invited to the farmers at end of July 30-11-2020. The participated farmers were in total 30, women (18) and (12) men farmers, kebele development agents (5), and one expert from the district livestock and fishery resource development office participated in the field day. Short explanations were given by the researchers as follows.

• The objective of the field day,

• The aim of the action research,

• General management practice of improved sheep fattening and

• The impact of improved sheep fattening in the study area.

Consequently,30 farmers who participated in field day has taken the awareness on the importance of improved sheep fattening, feeding, housing, vaccination, husbandry practice, treatment, marketing, and identify the merit of new and demerit of old technologies through discussions and field observations. In general, comments given and appreciated by the inviting visitors for the introduced technology were as follows.

• It creates job opportunity for unemployed individuals and

• It can be a major income generation activities for underemployed smallholder farmers.

4. Results and Discussion

Table 1 indicates that 81 (73.6%) and 29 (26.4%) of respondents were males and females respectively. The numbers of males were found higher than that of the females' participants probably because, in the study area, the majority of the sheep fatteners owning households were male-headed. This result agrees with the finding of ²⁷. The age category result showed that nearly half of the respondents were above 40 years old, whereas, 32 (29.1%) were between 21-40 years age category. On the other hand, the educational level of respondents was 31 (28.2%), 30 (27.3%), 30 (27.3%) and 19 (17.3%) were elementary, high school, illiterate, and above high school respectively (Table 1). From this result, we concluded that 49.1% were older than 40 years and 28.2% of respondents were joined elementary school which may be important to adopt and transfer agricultural technologies particularly livestock production technologies because of long years of experience or exposure to the sheep fattening environment modified with literacy. This agrees with the previous study of ²⁸ who reported 75% of literate respondents from East Bade Wacho District, Hadiya Zone Southern Ethiopia. In contrary to this result, ⁴ reported 56.25% of illiterate respondents from Duna District, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia. The marital status of the respondents of this research showed that 44 (40%), 29 (26.4%) 22 (20.0%) and 15 (13.6%) were married, unmarried, divorced, and widowed respectively. This indicated that respondents that were married used sheep fattening for their family income source and unmarried respondents for job creation opportunity.

The study kebele was a high potential area for sheep production and is an integral part of the mixed crop-livestock farming system. The feeding system is almost entirely dependent on grazing of natural pasture. Tethering is common during the cropping season (from June to November) at private grazing land and sheep are kept with large ruminants. Free graze is also common after the harvest of the crop (from January to June). During the rainy season, fallow land was the major feed resource for farmers in the area, when most of the farmland is covered with crops (75%). Natural pasture from private grazing lands was the predominant source of feed for livestock during the main rainy season (80.8%). The study result revealed 26.4% of the respondents used supplementary feeds were grains (boiled bean, pea and maize), non-industrial or local byproducts (atella of tella and areke, inset), which are the by-products of locally made beverages (Table 2). Moreover, the remaining 73.6% of the participators use natural grazing for their sheep. The present is slightly higher than the finding of ²⁸ who reported 66% natural grazing in East Badewacho District, Hadiya Zone Southern Ethiopia but ²⁹ reported 79.3% of natural grazing practiced in Chalia District of West Shoa Zone of Oromia Region which is slightly higher than the present result.

The traditional sheep fattening cycle takes more than a year. About 82.7% of farmers in the kebele attributed the long fattening period due to, the inadequate balance of improved breed, poor management arising from a lack of skill and knowledge on improved fattening practices. Only grazing based sheep fattening is practiced by all most all farmers. However, according to the report of ²⁹, natural pasture and crop residues do not fulfill the nutritional requirements of animals, particularly in the dry season due to poor management. Thus, the provision of supplementary feed to increase productivity in livestock is essential. Castrated animals are supplied (at certain times) with Atella, kocho, food leftover, powder of roosted beans and peas being mixed with salt and kept for one years before marketing. By doing so, the carcass yield was increased from 14kg\head of sheep to 20 kg\head of sheep that fattened with the local feed byproducts than those allowed only to natural grazing.

In this study area, 84.5% of respondents do not have a separate house for sheep. Hence, sheep kept at night in the main family house because of the fear of thefts and predators. In rare cases (15.5%), in Bekiyo Bekit Kebele, farmers kept their sheep during the dry season in the open fenced barn that is a separate house for their sheep (Table 2). In line with this result, the finding of ³⁰ indicated that 75.76% of respondents house their sheep in the main house together with the family. This practice may predispose farmers to different zoonotic diseases unless an immediate awareness creation program is scheduled. Usually, other livestock like cattle and goats are kept in the same family house with sheep separated by some barriers or tied separately. Wooden flooring was commonly used to reduce the contact of animals with their faeces. On the other hand, castration primarily was practised to improve the fattening potential and to make docile. The result of this research showed, Burdizzo castration was practised by 10%, and local castration was 90% in Bekiyo Bekit Kebele. The average age of castration was 10.8 ± 2.53 months sheep. It was noted that within the same age categories females were less proportionally used for fattening compared to males. Farmers with large flock size do have the potential to retain male lambs for subsequent castration and fattening. Poor farmers sell younger males at an earlier age in the study area.

In Bekiyo Bekit Kebele, the number of respondents who attained in the vaccination program was 19% only (Table 2). Farmers indicated pasteurellosis, coenurosis, diarrhoea, and lungworm are the most commonly encountered diseases of sheep at different seasons of the year. Similar diseases were reported across different part of the country ^{13, 30, 31}. Generally, animal health services are characterized by a lack of drugs in the vicinity, the inadequacy of service and the lack of trained personnel to deliver proper livestock health services in the study area. Unsystematic use of modern drugs like albendazole, especially those purchased from open markets for fattening purpose and treatment of parasites without consultation of veterinarians, might lead to the development of drug resistance reduction of the drug's efficacy. Maximum productivity in a given system of production emerges when disease control is in place ³². There is a need for concurrent development of appropriate health intervention packages when implementing genetic improvement strategies.

Even though farmers across the study site sell their animals when financial problems force them to sell, they do prefer to sell their sheep during holidays and festive occasions. Sheep are primarily sold in the nearby market where local traders are principal actors in the marketing process. This report agrees with the previous report by ²³, on production and marketing systems of sheep and goats in Alaba Zone, Southern Ethiopia. There was neither an organized form of marketing system do exist in the study sites. As indicated by farmers, sheep price is affected by season-holidays and festivals ³³. It was reported that a better price is fetched during Ethiopian New Year, Christmas, and Easter. Information on market price, supply, grades, and standards are not available to farmers. The formation of farmers’ cooperatives and the development of marketing facilities would enable farmers to get better prices to form their animals. Likewise, ³⁴ reported similar challenges of livestock marketing from Afar Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Areas.

Sheep marketing involves the collection of animals, transportation, and distribution to end-users. In the study areas, the collection of animals is carried out mainly by farmers, who do sheep trading as a sideline activity. Live sheep are collected from sheep producers and transported to nearby markets. The number of sheep collected by different collectors depends on the amount of money they have. There are different roots of Bekiyo Bekit Kebele sheep markets, which are scattered in different directions. Of these, the major sheep markets are from the studied area, which traders take sheep to Kaka, Daka, Amaya, Cida, Terica, Bonga, Gojjeb and Shebe. And also, from Kaka which traders take sheep to Bonga, Shebe, Jimma, and Addis Abeba.

Figure 8 indicated that, in the study area, the actor of the main market were producers (sheep fatteners’), whereas the primary market by small traders and secondary as well as the terminal market was by big traders. This report agrees with the previous report by ³⁵ the primary actors in Bonga sheep value chain are sheep producers (farmers), collectors, small traders, big traders, hotels, butchers, individual consumers.

Market demand for different classes of animals (age and sex) is different in different areas. For instance, old ewes are the most preferred type of sheep by the hotels at Bekiyo Bekit Kebele due to their lower price and higher carcass quantity (high meat yield) as compared to other classes of sheep. Castrates are trucked to Bonga, Jimma, Addis Ababa, by big traders during festivals like Easter, New Year, and Christmas. Young growing males are preferred by traders from different directions.

Value addition is one of the components of sheep fattening in the study area. The convectional feeds such as boiled inset, boiled godere, atella of tella and areke were of the means of value addition methods to minimize the cycle of fattening from year-round to only three months. According to the result indicated in Table 3, in the study area, only 20.9% of the respondents introduced the means of adding value to their products.

Figure 9 showed that in the study area the major sheep fattening value addition is improved sheep breed, effective and enough available veterinary services, housing, feeding, selling at the market place, collecting from markets, and process the product as a raw or cooking to the end-users. This report agrees with the previous research by ¹⁷, situation analysis of small ruminants’ value chain in Ethiopia.

The other component of these studies was a means of sharing sheep fattening information through using printing materials that is especially, brochures. The result showed in the studied area 15.5% of fatteners used brochures that were prepared by the local language (Kafinoonoo) and 84.5% were not used due to lack of knowledge, and lack of previous experience about using printing materials like brochures. The district livestock and fishery resource development office cannot introduce and prepared to disseminate the technologies through using printing materials rather than field and home visiting. This exploration result in line with other studies by ³⁶ who reported farm and home visits were the most preferred method among farmers; they were unpopular among extension staff who viewed them as uneconomical in terms of time and staff.

5. Conclusion and Recommendation

The fattening potential and meat quality of Bekiyobekit, recognized by the sheep owners, need further performance testing and carcass evaluation under feedlot conditions. Developing efficient input delivery systems, knowledge-based animal husbandry to improve production side and introduction of value-adding management practices; market-oriented short term fattening scheme and strengthening linkages between sheep producers and other value chain actors is also the most important aspect of enhancing the livelihood and source of income for smallholder farmers from improved Bonga sheep. Sheep fattening in particular believes that equal attention is not given by the government to the livestock sector compared to the crop sector. Therefore, sheep fattening should be recognized as an economically important activity and due policy attention given to it to enhance its contribution to household livelihood and food security.

Funding

The researchers did not receive any specific grant from any funding agencies.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Authors’ Contributions

TB designed the study, collected and analyzed the data and wrote the draft.

ME critically reviewed and edited the manuscript and confirmed the data analysis.

References