CHARACTERISTICS OF AFRICAN DWARF SHEEP REARING SYSTEMS USED IN THE NORTH AND SOUTH OF BENIN
2016
Adjibode, G | Tougan, UP | Daouda, IH | Zannou, MS | Mensah, GH | Youssao, AKI | Hanzen, Christian | Thewis, André | Koutinhouin, Benoit
The study aims to compare the rearing system characteristics of Djallonke sheepin theNorth and South of Benin. Data were collected on 133 sheep breeders in the North and 154farms in the South of Benin from September to November 2015. It comes out from thesurvey that the sheep breeders were predominantly a man (p <0.001). Fulani represent themore important ethnic group of shepherds in the North while in the South zone, Fon ethnicgroup predominate. The sheep owners of the two zones are married. The rate of nonschooledfarmers is more important in the North (79.70%) than in the South (38.96%; p<0.001). Their main activity was essentially livestock breeding in the North region(63.91%) to agriculture (46.75%) in the South. The majority of farmers in the North(75.94%) and South (59.74%) raise the animals as savings (p <0.001). The sale andconsumption constitute the main production goals (45.86% and 69.93%, respectively in theNorth and South; p <0.001). Animal feeds in both areas are provided by fodder, cropresidues, and kitchen residues. Only a few farmers (26.62% - 29.32%) store some feeds forthe dry season. Herd size is highest in the North than in the South (31.51 vs 17.67 heads; p<0.001). 69.17% of surveyed farms in the North have no habitat while 66.23% of thesurveyed farms south have traditional shelters. The grazing time is longer in North than insouth (7.92 vs 7.09 hours, p <0.001). The management of the farms are based on the owneror itfamily financing support with a predominance in the North (p. <0.001). Several speciesincluding poultry, goats and cattle were associated to the sheep rearing. The diversity ofthese systems of production must be taken into account for purposes of Djallonke sheepdevelopment.
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