COMMUNITY BASED SMALL SCALE COMMERCIAL CATTLE BREEDING PROGRAMME IN
MANGWE DISTRICT OF ZIMBABWE

Dublin Core

Title

COMMUNITY BASED SMALL SCALE COMMERCIAL CATTLE BREEDING PROGRAMME IN
MANGWE DISTRICT OF ZIMBABWE

Creator

N.T. BIDIA
A.B. DUBE
A, C.T. KHOMBEA
N. ASSAN

Description

The objective of the study was to assess the impact of the
introduction of improved indigenous beef cattle bulls on
productivity, herd population dynamics and socioeconomic factors in
small scale commercial livestock production areas of Mangwe district
in Zimbabwe. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to
all 20 participating farmers in the breeding scheme. The data
collected included household demographics, herd structure,
breeding practices, management, marketing, socio-economic
impacts, challenges and impacts of withdrawal of funds on the
breeding project by donors. Data analysis was perfomed using
statistical package for social science (SSPS), version 16 for descriptive
statistics. The herd sizes increased by 77%, 96%, 71%, and 60% for
the White Brahman, Black Brahman, Tuli and Nguni, respectively. The
highest number of offspring was sired by the White Brahman (4 per
year per farmer).The Tuli and Nguni bulls contributed the least
number of offspringof 2 per year per farmer. The mean age at first
calving from the progeny of the White Brahman, Black Brahman, Tuli
and Nguni were 36 ± 0 , 34,5 ± 2.12 , 33.75± 2.26, 35 ± 1.73
months, respectively. The main challenges affecting the programme
were lack of adequate feed, uncontrolled mating and lack of functional fences. The withdrawal of support funds on the breeding
programme resulted in collapse of the restocking program and lack
of improvement of water points. It was concluded that improved
indigenous cattle genetic resources can survive, reproduce under low
input communal systems. Therefore, community based breeding
schemes are a viable and sustainable option in improving beef
production in the country

Publisher

Agricultural Advances

Date

2015

Position: 99 (56 views)