Goat value chains in Shinelle district,
Somali zone, Ethiopia: Results of a rapid
value chain assessment
Hasen Abdurahman
Multi-stakeholder Workshop for Targeting Action
Research on Lowland Sheep and Goat Value Chains in
Ethiopia
Debre Zeit 1-2April 2013

1. Description of the study area
Location: Somali region, 15 km east of Dire Dawa town
Altitude :- ranges from 950-1350m above sea level
Rainfall:- 500-700 mm/year, it has two rainy seasons( Gu
and Karan)
Population: - 96988( 2007 population estimates made from
1994 census)
Livelihood:- Pastoralism: livestock produced mainly
shoats, cattle and camel

2. METHODOLOGY
 Field Visits, Focused Group Discussion(FGD) and Interviews
with Key Informants
 Discussion with district administration and district agricultural
office
 selected two kebeles (Dhegah-jabis and Gaad)
 these two kebeles have the highest small ruminant population in the
district
 10 -12 men and women in each of these two kebeleles in Shinelle
districts.

Key Informant Interview (KII)
 experts of livestock extension,
 livestock marketing,
 cooperatives promotion,
 traders,
 butchers,
 transporters,
 veterinarians and NGOs.
 Similarly, major shoat markets within and outside the study area were
visited. These include Shinelle and Dire Dawa.

3. RESULTS OF SHOAT VALUE CHAIN ASSESSMENT
3.1 Mapping of the Core Functions
Input Production Marketing Processing Consumption
supply
Activities Supply of: Feeding Collection Slaughtering Consuming
• Extension Housing Intermediat Cooking -Meat
services ion
Breeding -Milk
• Animal
Transportati
health Health -Milk
on
services care products
Credit Distribution
access
(NGO)
Actors Woreda Pastoralist Producers, Butchers, Consumers
Agriculturral s brokers, traders,
Hotels
Office collectors,
cooperatives
OXFAM

Input supply
Extension Service
 Extension service and training and capacity building to
livestock producers is rarely provided by NGOs whose main
focus is on training community animal health workers.
 FTC/PTCs are there but not functional.
Animal health services
 There are only 4 functional health posts out of the total 16
health posts in the woreda
 Vaccination is the major health service provided and it doesn’t
cover all.
 There are CAHWS and only small number of them are
functional however, they don’t have enough drugs.
 NGOs like Oxfam, HCS help agricultural district expert with
logistics.

Credit services
 There is no formal credit service institution that
provides credit for the pastoralists.
 Oxfam provides credit for shoat producers. The
credit is given to female pastoralists in order to
buy shoats.

Production
 Pastoralists rear sheep and goat for sell, milk production
and slaughter at home.
 Pastoralists indicated that shoats are the most important
sources of income to meet the household’s immediate cash
needs and they protect other household assets.
 Whenever the household comes across problems needing
cash expenditure, they first sell shoats. Camel and Cattle
would be sold when the family runs out of shoats.
 The other important purpose of rearing small ruminants is
production of goat milk for household consumption.

Feeding
- Feed natural pasture and shrubs
- No forage conservation
- Seasonal movement used as copping mechanism
- graph
Breeding
- Black head somali sheep and long eared somali goats
- No Selection for goat. No controlled mating for goats
- Selection and controlled mating for sheep
- Inbreeding problem for both sheep and goats
- Perception about inbreeding very low
Housing
- Fences
- Sheep and goat together but kids are separated
Animal health care
- Major diseases: shoat pox, CCPP, PPR, Ticks, FMD,
- Shortage of vaccines, drugs

Seasonal Distribution of Feed Resources Relative to the Rainfall
Pattern
100 5
80 4
Feed Availability (%)
Rainfall Score (0-5)
60 3
40 2
20 1
0 0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Browsing Grazing Rainfall (score 0-5)

Milk production
 Both sheep and goat milk produced
 Only goat milk is consumed
 Sheep milk used for butter production
 Milking and milk marketing is the role of women
 Shoat milk usually used for hh consumption. But
it is also marketed
 Whole goat milk is marketed but it only butter
from sheep milk that is marketed
 Milk marketing groups

Marketing
Proportion of Actors in the market
Brokers 17%
Pastoralists 20%
Hotels 13%
Individual consumers 3%
Traders 13%
Collectors 23%
Cooperatives 10%

To whom they sell
Pastoralists 5%
Hotels 15%
Individual consumers 10%
Traders 20%
Collectors 30%
Cooperatives 20%

Type of live animals sold in the market
 Yearling 20% they sale for slaughter and
fattening
 Ewes 40% for hotels
 Young female 10% for breeding
 Fattened male 15% for holidays and death
occasion
 Kids 15% for fattening and
agro-pastoralists

Processing
 No export abattoirs in the district as well as in
Dire dawa town.
 Butcheries/slaughter cooperative slaughter
shoats in municipal slaughter houses and retail
meat on kilogram basis both at Shinelle and
Megala-jebdu (Dire)

Consumption
 Shoats from Shinelle district have three end
markets of which are Shinelle market, Dire dawa
market and foreign market.
 Consumers at Shinelle get from slaughtering
cooperatives based at Shinelle.
 Consumers at dire dawa get from Hotels at dire
dawa and butcheries at Megala-jebdu and live
shoat from Dire markets

Shoats Marketing Routes
Buraad Haramaya
24% 20%
Meta
Jalanqo
Mayu
40% Bisle
8%
6% 2%
Shinelle Shinelle
Dire
10% Dewa Watter
5%
Harraw
Badano
awa Barja
40% Errer
10% Gaad 4%
15%
16%
Figure 2: Shoats marketing routes from the Shinelle Figure 2: Shoats marketing routes to Dire Dawa town Market

Marketing channels
Land owner Rule and Regulations Security
Enabling Env’t
Individual consumers Individual consumers at Live export to
Consumption at Shinelle Djibouti & Somalia
Dire dawa town
Meat
Hotels at Dire Butcheries at Dire
Processing Slaughtering
cooperative 30% 10% dawa 60%
Pastoralists (for
Live animal Big Traders Collectors Cooperatives breeding purpose) Individual buyers
20%
marketing 30% (20%)
20% (10%)
Brokers
5% 10%
75% 10%
Production Pastoralists/Agro-pastoralists Rearing Livestock
Vet. Transpor
Input Supply Service Extension Credit tation

Marketing Channels
 Market Channel 1:
Pastoralists Broker Big trader Export
market
Market Channel 2
Pastoralists Broker Collector Hotels
Individual consumers
 Market Channel 3
Pastoralists Broker Cooperatives
Butchers Individual consumers
 Market Channel 4
Pastoralists Broker Individual Buyers
Market Channel 5
Pastoralists Broker Cooperatives
Butchers Export market

Major Constraints along Shinelle Shoat value chain
Input Supply
 Shortage of veterinary drugs and equipment
 Shortage of in-service training for CAHWS and
veterinarians
 Non-functional animal health posts and CAHWs
 No credit service facilities and practices in the
area.

Production
 Feed shortage due to seasonality of rainfall
 frequent and prolonged droughts
 scarcity of livestock feed both in quality and quantity
 Lack capacity building/awareness creation on
improved shoat production and management
practices
 degradation of grazing lands
 Prevalence of diseases and parasites (PPR, Shoat
pox, CCPP, IP (Fasciola), EP (Tick, Mange), FMD, etc

Marketing
 Native pasture and subsistence based livestock
production
 Spoilage of milk within a short period of time caused
by poor management and lack of improved/standard
milk containers and equipment.
 Lack of market information system
 Long distance between the production areas and the
livestock markets
 There is market infrastructure but not functional
 No permanent linkage between producers and
buyers.
 Poor horizontal linkages between actors in the shoat
value chains.
 No quarantine and certification facilities and other
necessary structures for livestock export.

Conclusion
 Non market oriented production
 Input supply and service provision not well organized
 Shortage of feed due to frequent drought is the major
challenge
 Pastoralists use seasonal migration as a coping
mechanism
 Diseases and parasites are also influencing shoat
production. But there is insufficient supply of
drugs, vaccines, the health posts and clinics are not
providing expected services
 No formal credit
 There is seasonal export operation
 The major destination market is Dire Dawa