According to a 2020 research study on “Sustainable Utilization of Indigenous Goats in Southern Africa”, it is reckoned goats have a key role to play in ensuring food security and economic livelihood to farmers in rural areas. Women play a vital role in goat rearing, promoting economic autonomy within households. Indigenous goats dominate and are of high significance due to their adaptive traits that are relevant for climate change and low maintenance.
The study undertaken by Phetogo Monau, Kethusegile Raphaka, Plaxedis Zvinorowa-Chimboza and Timothy Gondwe states that the Southern African region is a host to approximately 38 million goats and about 70 percent of the goats are kept under traditional management systems where the farm structure comprises of about 20+ goats.
The authors further characterize indigenous goats from a perspective that goats in the region are locally named according to different ethnic names and geographical habitats but show similar phenotypes. They are mostly multi-coloured, bearded, horned with medium to broad lopped ears, short hair and can be small to medium size.
It is also observed that these variations have caused some discrepancies with regard to bred and ecotype identification. Although further studies are needed in this regard, genetic characterization is also needed to guide the final decisions on breed improvement and sustainable utilization programmes.
The study acknowledges that goat production in the traditional management system is relatively low due to minimal inputs, poor infrastructure undefined marketing channels and multiple breeding objectives.
“Indigenous goats are, however, the most popular bred due to their ability to cope with a range of climatic conditions including disease challenges, inadequate feed resources and low management. These genetic resources are more crucial to livelihoods as climate change progresses and environmental challenges arise. They provide nutrition and financial stability to poor resource households and play a vital role in African culture,” submits the study.
According to the research study, due to their adaptability, indigenous goats are found in a wide range of production environments in Southern Africa. Although goats as a strategic resource have contributed to sustainable utilization of the environment, they have been blamed of causing environmental degradation in other areas.
“If managed well, due to their small size (low maintenance) and their ability to browse in poor and dry areas where other ruminants cannot, goats can contribute significantly to sustainable range land utilization. While most of environmentally harmful effects of goat grazing arise from improper management practices particularly at very high grazing pressures, if managed adequately, goat grazing can be a useful tool for environmental conservation. For example, it has been found that mixed grazing of indigenous cattle and goats at a ratio of 2:1 had a complementary advantage for improved utilization of pasture resources and animal performance compared to when either of the species was kept,” argues the study report.
Indigenous goats are generally characterized by a small body size, slow growth rate, low milk yield and low carcass weight. In order to improve productivity of these goats, cross-breeding with exotic breeds was initiated around the 1980s.
Unfortunately, according to the study, this did not yield any positive results to the farmers’ livelihood as it was not properly coordinated. There was a mismatch of breeding goals, a failure to capture tangible values and improve the existing management of low input production systems. The most concerning factor included continuation of haphazard crossbreeding and breed replacement practiced by the farmers, which has a negative impact on the existing population of indigenous goats as genetic resources.
Sustainable utilization of indigenous goats is the key factor for efficient conservation, breed improvement, management and marketing. This entails comprehensive information on breed identity and their unique eccentrics, as well as their environments.
In Southern Africa, characterization studies have been conducted on production systems, phenotypic characterization and genetic characterization. Initiatives have been made to conserve indigenous goats as purebred flocks in different countries of the region.
Programmes, structures and modalities to implement conservation with sustainable utilization are, however, still lacking, and this remains a challenge to food security.
The article further acknowledges that derivation of significant benefits from goats as a strategic genetic resource in Southern Africa is still to be experienced. This is despite the existence of the Global Plan of Action and national plans for management and utilization of genetic resources. While these plans are commendable, their implementation at the rural community level remains a challenge due to a variety of reasons.
“Currently, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), markets and development agencies continue to promote exotic goat breeds and crossbreeds at the expense of indigenous ones, despite the previous failures. A change of attitude by researchers, policy makers and extension workers towards traditional goat keepers and their breeds is important,” the study encourages.
For any production improvement strategies, the study advises on the need for “goat owners to be involved in decision making and ownership of such initiatives is important”. No matter how much effort is put into financial and technological support, the eventual survival of improvement programmes depends on whether the farmers understand and agree with the objectives of the projects.
With that in mind, farmers’ knowledge, innovations and practices must be integrated into research and extension. Community based programmes have been found to be integral to the success of sustainable management and utilization of animal genetic resources.
The down side of indigenous goat farming is that despite their competitive edge under prevailing climatic and environmental conditions, “they are still generally viewed as less [productive than exotic breeds”. Therefore, practical selection programmes are needed to improve productivity and add more value to indigenous goats.
It is also submitted that genetic improvement programmes can only be implemented where accurate performance and pedigree recording is possible, which has proven unsuccessful in most indigenous goat production systems due to lack of structures for record-keeping. Therefore, simple and easy to understand data collection tools should be formulated for indigenous goat keepers. Local management of recording schemes should be encouraged through the promotion of farmer groups and cooperative projects.
“Since most smallholder farmers keep small flocks, formation of cluster or groups would enable them to acquire improved economies of scale. As a block, they can easily lobby government, undertake group funding or solicit private sector funding for the much-needed infrastructure that includes breeding and reproductive technology centers, roads, milk collection facilities etc. Furthermore, they can collectively negotiate better prices from input suppliers, transport providers and at the market,” the report posits.
Finally, for sustainability and the success of the community-based programmes, specialized communication strategies should be established, coupled with programme monitoring and evaluation. This entails dialogue and feedback as well as review, implementation and revision of the developed programmes.
The report also submits that goat keepers in rural communities are faced with challenges at different phases of the goat production value chain. One such constraint is unavailability and high cost of input supplies such as medicine, vaccines and feed to mitigate diseases, internal and external parasites, and seasonal fluctuations in feed quality and quality.
In some cases, due to erratic rainfall and climate change, communities have encountered shortage of drinking water and feed for their animals. Possible interventions to these shortcomings include government incentives through subsidies on veterinary and feed supplies to the resource constrained farmers. Crop residue and other locally available feed materials could be used together with commercial feed ingredients to develop more palatable and nutrient balanced mixed rations. This could alleviate malnutrition and mortality in goat production.
The report suggests that interventions to production constraints should integrate indigenous knowledge from the communities and scientific evaluation from research and academic institutions, with extension services provided by different sectors such as government and NGOs. Inclusion of existing knowledge in indigenous goat production provides an opportunity to better improve community knowledge and encourage participation.
At the regional policy and legal framework, the study notes that despite individual country efforts in conservation and management of indigenous goats, more could still be achieved at the regional level. This is advanced by the fact that some goat breeds are common across several countries or at least have a common ancestry.
However, due to the absence of regional data integration, the genetic relationship of these goat breeds remains largely unknown. In any case, exploration of genetic resources across countries compared to within countries provide an opportunity to access a large pool of genetic diversity with potential for an enormous selection response.
