Assessment on Production Objectives, Breeding Practices and Farmer’s Trait Preference of Indigenous Goat in Three Districts of South Gondar Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

The study was conducted three districts of South Gondar zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia with the objective of identifying production objectives, breeding practice and farmer’s trait preference of indigenous goat. The zone was stratified into highland, midland and lowland agro-ecology and then selected one district from each agro-ecology. Data were collected from 171 households through semi structured and structured questionnaires, focal group discussions and secondary sources. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 and SAS version 9.3 (2014). Mixed crop-livestock production system which accounted for 98.8% was the main agricultural production system in the study area. Results revealed that source of income generation (0.48) was the primary production objectives of framers in the study area followed by meat for home consumption (0.34), saving (0.10), ceremony (0.05) and manure (0.03). Body conformation was the most preferable trait in all agro-ecology of the study area followed by reproduction rate and adaptability in highland, while coat color and reproduction rate for midland and lowland. Most (72.22%) of the farmers in the study area were used uncontrolled mating system. About 32.35% of farmers in the study area had their own breeding buck while 67.65% of farmers shared breeding bucks with their neighbors. The inbreeding coefficient of indigenous goat in private and communal grazing system of the study area was 0.14 and 0.10, respectively. In general, from the current study, it could be concluding that trait preference and breeding practice of farmers in the study area was traditional, and inbreedingcoefficient of indigenous goat in the private and communal grazing system was high comparable with the maximum acceptable level of 0.063 (Armstrong, 2006). Therefor further investigation should be undertaken to minimize inbreeding coefficient of indigenous goat.