Traditional Selection Criteria of Ogaden Cattle in Pastoral and Agro Pastoral Production Systems and Its Implication to Resilience of the Breed in the Face of Climate Change in the Future

摘要

Selecting for adapted livestock breeds that will produce at optimum in the anticipated climate change scenario is one way of sustaining the production system. Africa has accumulated indigenous knowledge to coping up with climate variability in the past. It is common practice to shift to livestock agriculture as climate becomes less predicted in Africa. Cattle contribute more than 80% of meat and milk in Ethiopia. The aim of this paper was to identify traditional selection criteria of Ogaden cattle breed in pastoral and agro pastoral production systems and suggest possible intervention strategies. Questionnaire survey was conducted in Wabeshebele Zone of Ethiopia, in three districts based on cattle population and accessibility on 126 households. The results of the study revealed that farmers preferred to own diversified livestock species to cope up with unpredicted climate. Milk production and body conformation were ranked first and second criteria in selecting female which were followed by adaptive characteristics such as coat color, fertility and longevity, respectively, while in male, adaptive characters such as hump size, body conformation, coat color and fertility were given priority over milk production. Selection criteria of cattle practiced in the society strongly favored adaptation and ability to perform in feed constraint environment in addition to meat, milk and fertility. However, the simplest reproductive biotechnology, AI, was rarely practiced in the study area. It was recommended that indigenous knowledge of the society on selection criteria of the cattle breed need to be integrated with utilization of assisted reproductive biotechnologies and on farm research innovations on the breed so far acquired in any improvement program of the breed in the future.