Waq-Abergelle Goat Value Chain Analysis:
the case of Abergelle Woreda, Amhara
Region, Ethiopia
Lijalem Abebaw, Leulseged Kassa, Tewodros Alemu, Getachew Legesse
Multi-stakeholder Workshop for Targeting Action Research on Atsbi sheep
and Abergelle goat Value Chains in Tigray, Ethiopia
Mekelle, 19-20 March 2013

Description of Abergelle woreda
Particulars Unit Quantity
Human Population No 47106
Male No 23964
Female No 23142
Livestock
population
No 261,544
Goat and sheep No 147,557
Land use %
Arable land % 10
•15 Kebeles in the woreda.
• The farming system (crop-livestock mixed dominated by
livestock)

Methodology
FGD
 Method of the study
 focus group discussants
 Farmers(including women’s),
collectors, traders
 Key informant interview
 SMS of the woreda, kebele
and Veterinary shop owners
 Collectors and traders
 Woreda administrater
 Head of Abergelle woreda
agriculture office
 Abergelle woredaTrade and
transport head
 Waghimera zone experts

Result and Discussion
Core Functions of Abergelle Goat
VC
- Farmers
- AWAO
- ACSI
- SDARC
- Smallholder
Farmers
- Local Collectors
- Traders
- Wholesalers
- Retailers
- Hotels &
- Restaurants
- Butchery
- Abattoir
- Farmers
- Urban
dwellers
- Foreign
consumers
- Breeding
stock
- Livestock
Extension
- Dispersing
credits
- Housing
- Herding
- Milking
- Fattening/
conditioning
- Buying/Selling
- Collection
- Wholesale
- Retailing
- Transporting
- Milk /meat
processing
- Selling
Consumption in
the form of:
- Goat
meat/milk/
products
- Live goat for
breeding and
fattening
Activities
Actors
Core
functions

1. Input supply
 Breeding Stock
 purchases, gifts, inheritance, share goat rearing, and
PSNP
 There is no improved breed introduced with in the area.
 Feed supply
 No supplementary feed supply except for kids(cow pea
haulm, sorghum strove for old goats)
 No private feed supplier
 Veterinary Service
 AWAO provide service(5 animal health posts, 3
animalhealth workers, and one DVM at woreda level)
 No private vet. Service.
 Credit Service
 ACSI(18%). HABP(10% interest).

2. Production
Feeding
 Feed (free browsing and grazing); Seasonality of
feed and rainfall
0
1
2
3
4
5
0
20
40
60
80
100
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Rainfall
Score
(0-5)
Feed
Availability
(%)
Feed availability Rainfall score

Breeding
 Abergelle is the only breed
 short ear, small body size, drought resistant, has
testy meat, do not lose significant weight while giving
birth and milking
 Farmers buck and does selection criteria: prolificacy,
milk yield, and frequency of birth giving, physical
appearance, and color.
 Traditional believe: “The farmer will lose his flock if
his buck serve another farmer’s does”
 Lack of awareness about inbreeding and its effects

Cont’d…
 Animal health
PPR, goat pox, Orf, Actinomycosis and
Pasteurellosis, Mange, Lice, Coenurosis and
Moniezia expansa.
 The farmers’ also ranked disease is their major
constraint in goat production.
 However, it seems impossible to give the service
due to shortage of drugs, equipment and skilled
labor.

Housing
 Two types: rainy (caves and roofed house) and dry
season
Main Stock
Barn
Kids Barn

3. Processing
 Actors are butcheries, hotels and restaurants.
slaughter and prepare meat for consumption
 Abergelle Abattoir as an actor
Removing hide, chilling the whole carcass and
wrapping the carcass with cotton fabric and
transport in a cold chin up to the cargo plane.

4. Consumption
 Domestic and export
 Milk
 Women’s do not drink milk due to traditional believe
women’s get strong and unable to control by men
 Meat
During holidays (Easter and new years)
Urban dwellers, defense force
 Foreign consumers buy processed meat from whole
sellers and retailers in their home country.

Market routes

Major marketing Channels
Marketing ChannelMap of Abrgele amhara goat vc.docx
 Channel one: Local consumers, restaurants and hotels
buy from producers
 Channel two: smallholder producers sell to farmers for
breeding
 Channel three: Bulk consumers buy goats that pass
through collectors and traders from producers
 Channel four: The Export abattoir /market buy goats
from farmers, collectors and traders
 Channel five: big town consumers buy goats from

Actors in goat value chain
 Producers: - sell goats to get income for household
expenses
 Collectors: - most are farmers do as part time. Buy up to
20 goats
 Small traders: - buy 30-50 goats at a time
 Big traders: - These traders buy up to 100 goats at a time.
 Retailers: - buy in bulk and retail to customers
 Export Abattoir: - Abergelle abattoir buys goats less than
two years.
 Butchers: - slaughter and sell slicing and roasting meat to
consumers.

Distribution of Costs and Margins
Category Marketing
cost
Marketing
margin
Net
marketing
margin
Producers
share of
final price
Proportion
of value
added
Channel
one(Hotels
and
restaurants)
238 465 181 42% 38%
Channel
two(butchers)
6 285 279 53% 49%

Transport
 two modes of transportation
 Trekking and trucking
 Traders transport goats via ISUZU truck. During holydays
seven ISUZU trucks per week out flow to Mekele town
while three ISUZU trucks per week during normal
marketing days.
 The mortality rate is on average two goats per one ISUZU
truck. One truck loads 70-100 goats.
 The average transport cost per head of goats is 20
Ethiopian Birr.
 The volume of goats out flow from fenarewa via trekking is
two third of the total volume inflow to Mekele town.
 2/3 goes via trekking; and 1/3 via Isuzu and ORAL truck

Gender disparities
 male keep goats
 women’s look after kids and old goats around
homestead
 Men’s sell goats
 Women’s sell butter
Market information
 from neighbor sold goat before a week
Traders from their customers
No organized market information system

Input supply constraints
 Lack of credit service:
ACSI 18% is not affordable by smallholder farmers
 HAB program interest rate (10%) benefit small number
of food insecure farmers.
 Feed Shortage: due to long dry season leaves of
trees and bushes shade causes body weight lose,
even death of goats
 Lack of skilled animal health extension workers
 Financial constraint to buy materials and drugs
 Lack of rural road
 Lack of transport facilities
 Shortage of vet. equipment
Constraints along the VC

Production constraints
 Disease: - farmers ranked first production constraint
 Low productivity of Abergelle breed
 Traditional feeding practice
Marketing constraints
 Lack of supply during dry season (March, April, May
and June)
 Lack of market Information
 Multiple taxation
 Lack of vertical linkage
 Weak horizontal linkage

Opportunities
 Government development focus and large flock size of
goats:
 Of the total 261,544 livestock, shoat accounts about 147,557.
 Availability of preferred Abergelle breed ecotypes
 eg. Ambadago and Aresgie villages
 Availability of large area for forage development
 only 9.9% arable land and 2.5% for settlement.
 88% forest, bush and other land uses

Cont’d…
 Availability of Water: - Abergelle woreda is endowed with rivers (Tirary,
Zamera etc.) and Tekezie artificial lake.
 Availability of adapted forage species:- SDARC has verified the adaptability
of forages like cowpea, lablab, and elephant grass.
 Labor availability: - There are many unemployed youth in the area who have
a great interest to involve in modern goat production.
 Market access:- bulk consumers like defense force (Semien Eze), Mekele
urban dwellers and Abergelle export abattoir are the potential buyers of
Abergelle goat.

Conclusion
 Traditional production system
 Low productivity of the breed
 Drought, poor input and service delivery systems
 Unorganized marketing system and low bargaining
power of producers
 Weak horizontal and vertical linkages among the
different actors
 To develop goat VC, improve its efficiency and
maximize benefit of actors, there is a need to develop
short, medium and long intervention plans (purpose of