- The document discusses a proposed MSc research project to identify breeding objective traits for the Somali goat breed in Ethiopia's Sitti zone. - The project will use participatory methods like surveys, interviews, and animal rankings with goat owners to determine important traits like productivity, health, and market preferences. - Data on traits, coat colors, weights and measurements will be collected from 600 goats and analyzed to identify key breeding objectives to improve the breed and support goat farming in the region.

1. Definition of breeding objective traits for short eared Somali
goat breed in Sitti zone, east Ethiopia
Major Advisor: Kefeleng Kebede (PhD)
Co-Advisor: Solomon Gizaw (PhD)
Solomon Abegaz (PhD)
Msc Research proposal
Ahmed Usman
March 2020
Haramaya University, Haramaya

2. Presentation outlines

3. 1. INTRODUCTION
 Indigenous goats in Ethiopia are important sources of both tangible
and intangible benefits to farmers.
 To date the country has more than 30.2 million of goats (CSA, 2018).
 Given the large number of goats in Ethiopia,
The productivity per unit of animal and
Their contribution to the national economy is relatively low.
 Lack of the systematic goat breeding program is one of the major
constraint to low productivity.
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4. INTRODUCTION Con't…
Due to this, attempts have been made
crossing local breed with exotic breeds (Solomon et al.,
2014).
However, programs in did not deliver the anticipated benefits
to farmers (Oumer and Firew, 2017).
This is mainly due to:
Incompatibility of genotype with farmers breeding
objectives
Management methods, and
Existing production enviroments.
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5. INTRODUCTION Con't…
Thus, designing the appropriate breeding program
ois impossible for breeds that have not identified either
their breeding objectives.
Breeding objectives defines
o the traits of importance's and
o direction of improvements that the farmers would like
to go towards satisfying his demands from their
markets.
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6. INTRODUCTION Con't…
However, despite many researches done in Ethiopia
 detail information on farmers breeding objectives of indigenous
goats in study area is still scanty.
 No formal breeding objective traits/trait of interests exists for SES
goat breed.
Thus, to overcome the past problems
o Participatory way of breeding objective identification and
understanding the context of local breeding practices is crucial
for the success of breeding programs.
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7. Objective of the study
 General Objectives
To define the breeding objective traits for SES goats in study area.
 Specific Objectives
To identify the goat production systems, and breeding practice for
SES goat keepers.
To determine the most appropriate breeding objectives, and
selection criteria for goat keepers in study area.
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8. 2.MATERIALS AND METHODS
o Sitti Zone
o Geographically, Sitti Zone lies
• In between 8°44′- 11°00′ N latitude and
40°22′E- 44°00′ E longitude
• Altitude ranges from 500 to 1350 masl,
• Mean annual T° ranges from 15.1 °C to 35.0 °C (NMSA, 2004).
o For this study, out of six districts in the Zone two sample districts
will be selected purposively to identify trait of interests in study
area.
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9. MATERIALS AND METHODS Con't…
Target site selection
will be selected purposively by taking into account their:
oAgro-ecological condition
oProduction System
oLarge concentration and population of goats
oPresence of common grazing land
oAccessibility to market and roads, and
oMobility patterns.
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10. Figure 1. Map of the study area of Sitti zone 7

11. MATERIALS AND METHODS Con't…
Sampling Techniques
 Rapid field visits and discussions
•ill be conducted with livestock experts in Zonal and district
offices to know the distribution of the target goat populations in
study area.
Based on outcome of discussions
• Two districts will be selected purposively by taking into account
their accessibility, production potentials, representativeness, and
large population of goats.
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12. MATERIALS AND METHODS Con't…
o Purposive sampling will be employed to select districts and
villages.
o Two sample districts and four villages will be selected for study.
o Systematic random sampling will be used to select 120 respondents
(30/villages and 60/district) for the study.
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13. MATERIALS AND METHODS Con't…
Data collection methods
 Individual interview
Structured questionnaires will be employed to randomly selected goat owners
to obtain data on the following topics;
Purpose of keeping goats
Selection criteria of breeding buck/does
Production performances
Reproduction performances
Morphological traits like coat colours
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14. 3.2. Sampling Techniques and Sample Size
 Rapid field visits and discussions will be taken with livestock
experts, and key informants to know distribution of the SES goat
populations.
 Based on the outcome of discussions, two districts will be
selected purposively based on their agro-ecologies, production
systems, goat population, and accessibility.
 Two villages from each districts will be selected purposively
based on their concentration of goats, production potentials,
communal grazing land.
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15. Con’t…
 Farmers who own at-least five breeding goats will be identified
and their lists will be prepared in each villages.
 Systematic random sampling will be used to select 30 HH per
villages and a total of 120 HH for the study from the pre-selected
lists of farmers.
 General information of the study areas will also be gathered from
the secondary data, and respective districts of Agriculture offices.
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16. 3.3. Method of data collections
 Structured questionnaires, own-flock ranking, and group rankings
will be employed to identify traits of interests.
 Two villages from each district will be selected purposely based
on their goat production potential and accessibility.
 For the individual interview, a survey involving 120 HH, and
measurement of 600 goats in four villages will be conducted
using structure questionnaires.
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17. Con’t…
 Questionnaire will be focused on HH characteristics, purpose of
keeping goats, flock structure, performance of goats, breeding
practices, selection criteria, and constraints.
 Mobile enumerators who spokes the community local languages
will be trained for mobility patterns.
 The lists of HH who own at-least five breeding goats with a
minimum of one year experience in goat breeding practice will be
prepared in each selected villages.
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18. Con’t…
Comprehensive list of traits will be provided to each
owners and each of them confirm the trait of importance
and direction of improvements.
Focus group discussion will be taken in each villages with
5-6 people with 2-3 women's.
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19. Con’t…
 Goat owners will be inquired to rank the 1st best, 2nd best, 3rd best
and a worst doe/bucks within their own flock and provide reason
for ranking the animals.
 In addition, data on coat colour type, body weight and other linear
body measurements, kid growth, kid survival, reproduction traits,
and milk yield will be recorded for each does and bucks.
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20. 3.4. Identification of breeding objective traits
3.4.1. Own flock ranking experiment (OFRE)
o Fourty five SES goat owners from each district will be selected and
visited early in the morning at their homesteads before goats are
released for grazing.
o The family members will be inquired to rank their 1st best, 2nd best,
3rd best and a worst doe in their flocks with reasons.
o The reasons of ranking and life history of the does (age, number of
kidding, number of kids born, number of kids weaned), body weight
and some linear body measurements will be identified and recorded.
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21. 3.4.2 Group animal ranking experiment
o Fifteen breeding does and bucks from each districts will be selected
randomly.
o The life history of does/bucks (age, price, mature weight, birth type,
libido, disease resistance), and the live weight of selected animals
will be measured.
o Selected animals will be boughted to the central place and randomly
assigned into groups for each sex with five animals per groups.
o 10 farmers per groups who have not known the selected animals
will be invited to rank the animals in each group with reasons of
ranking.
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22. 3.5. Data analysis
 The statistical software SAS (2008) will be used to analyze the
data from questionnaires and participatory live animal rankings.
 The proportion of traits preferred by the farmers in OFR and GR
experiments will be analyzed by the frequency procedure.
 GLM procedure of SAS (2008) will be used to analyze body
weight and other linear body measurements fitting the village and
rank as fixed effects in the model.
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23. Con’t…
 Quantitative characters provided as life history will be analyzed
with MEANS using the GLM procedures of SAS (2008).
 Farmer’s trait preference rankings will be summarized into index
as weighted averages.
 Chi-square test will be used to analysis the independence of
categories or to assess the statistical significance.
 Spearman’s rank correlation of doe rank with other different traits
will be employed using SAS (2008).
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24. Con’t…
 Index-based ranking will be employed to identify the relative
importance of ranked traits within the district using formula given
by Zonabend König et al. (2016) for the weighted criteria (Ij).
Ij =∑3
i=1 rixij / (∑6
j=1 ∑3
i=1 rixij)
Where;
 Xij is the number of respondents giving rank i (i=1, 2 or 3) to trait j.
 𝑟𝑖 is the weights corresponding to the rank i in which weight of 3,
2, and 1 assigned for the rank 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
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25. 4. WORK PLAN
Table1. Work plan
no Activities Duration
1 Rapid field visit and questionery designing Apr, 2020
2 Respondent selection, enumerator recruitment and
training
Apr, 2020
3 Sampling key informants and households May, 2020
4 interview and informal survey Jun, 2020
5 Data collecting Jun, 2020
6 Data coding, entry, and editing July, 2020
8 Data analysis and write up Sep, 2020
9 Thesis submission Oct, 2020

26. 4.Budget Summary
Table.2.Budget Summary
Source of research fund: MoA 20
no Items Total Birr
1 Stationery expenses 3755.00
2 Fuel and Lubricant 14,091.00
3 Transport expense 10,500.00
4 Supporter workers 23,870.00
5 per Diem 15,450.00
6 Supervision and examination fee 3000.00
Grand Total 70,666:00

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