The farmers did not provide supplementary feeds such as pods collecting from browse trees, household products such as atela (residue of local beer), concentrates and silage. However, during the dearth period they provide sorghum stover for sick and lactating goats.

The FGDs categorized months as very heavy rainfall scored five; medium rainfall scored three; little rainfall scored one and no rain fall scored zero. They showed that rainfall distribution from June to August with the high rainfall record in July (Fig. 3). The highest feed availability was in August. During the months from February to May, feed availability is negligible due to the long dry season. This causes body weight loss and even death of the goats.

Source: FGD (2012)

The types of feed availability vary along the seasons. During keremt green fodder accounts, almost 20% of the feed while 80% of feed get from browsing (Fig. 4). During first and second bega green fodder would not be longer available for goats rather sorghum stover was available for lactating and sick goats. Nevertheless, other goats could not get supplementary feed during dearth period.

Despite sever goat feed shortage in the area, farmers give little emphasis to supplementation of goats. Even though some improved forage species like cowpea, lablab, vetch, oat and elephant grass have been introduced by different development and research organizations (Alemu and Amare, 2016); their utilization as a main or supplementary goat feed remains negligible, This is because of small and fragmented farmland holding size per household (0.7 hectare) (Tewodros, 2010).

However, there are some traditional feed management practices in the area. Seasonal stock movement in search of browses, feeding sorghum stock and haulm of cowpea for kids and old goats, and feeding cuts of tree branches are among the traditional feeding practices used as coping mechanisms during feed shortage seasons. Even though it is declining due to land shortage, there are also rotational grazing/browsing traditions by reserving communal lands along rivers for use in dry seasons. Such temporarily protected areas will be free of grazing from December to January.

The other traditional practice in feeding goats is feeding salty soil during rainy seasons. In July and August, farmers take their goats to those specific areas that have salty soil or bring that salty soil to home and give it to their goats. Farmers believe this will help goats to keep them healthy and get good body condition.

Abergelle goat breed is the predominant breed farmers of Waghimera Zone in General and Abergelle District in particular are rearing. The experts and farmers believe its merit is drought resistance and adaptation to the unique agro-climatic condition. There is no improved breed introduced to the area. Sekota Dry Land Agricultural Research Center was in the process of crossing Begayet (Barka) and Abergelle breeds to improve meat and milk productivity. Nevertheless, the crossing is already discontinued due to the change of a strategy to conserve and improve the productivity of Abergelle breed through selection before crossing.

The FGDs characterized Abergelle breed as short ear, small body size, drought resistant one that does not lose significant weight while giving birth and milking and live in such special undulated topography. They also stressed the good quality of the Abergelle breed in terms of the special test of its meat.

It was learnt that farmers in the area are selecting better performing animals for breeding stock. The selection criteria differ for male and female goats. They consider physical appearance, color and sexual desire as main criteria to select bucks and prolificacy, milk yield, kidding interval, physical appearance and color to select females. These criteria are evaluated directly on the individual animal to be selected or inferred from its pedigree. Breeding males are used for 3–5 years after which they are sold or castrated.

The farmers keep their flocks individually to protect unwanted mating among different herds. In this situation, goats of similar inheritance mate each other. The farmers do not share and sale bucks to their neighbor for breeding purpose due to the traditional believe that “The farmer will lose his flock if his buck serves another farmer’s does"; and also fear disease transmission between flocks. Farmers do not practice formal recording but they know the performance and behavior of each goat in the herd. Therefore, to sustain goat production as the major livelihood strategy, there has to be improvement of the breed either in selection or in crossing with other indigenous or exotic goat breeds.

Both microbial and parasitic caused diseases are prevalent in the study area. Microbial caused diseases are PPR, goat pox, Orf, Actinomycosis and Pasteurellosis. The parasitic diseases are Menge, Lice, Coenurosis and Moniezia expansa. Abergelle district Agriculture office provides vaccine for PPR, pox, anthrax and Ovine pastuerollosis; acaricide for skin disease such as mange mite and tick. Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) were trained in some Kebeles, including Saziba to serve the community in providing preliminary veterinary service.

Housing is vital to improve production and productivity. It also protect from predators and theft. Farmers construct house to keep goats over night. The house for kids is separate from the flock to milk the does in the morning. The type of house is different in dry and wet seasons. The dry season housing is temporary fence made from tree branches. It is used for some time (e.g. two weeks) and then shifted to other place to protect goats from lice, ticks and other insects and disease.

In summer (rainy season), farmers use caves or construct barn with a roof from locally available materials such as grass and tree branches. Farmers clean the barn every morning to protect potential diseases, prevent foot rot and parasites problem. Farmers said that goat milk yield will decrease unless the barn is clean.

The development support service is mainly provided at input delivery and production stages and it is delivered by office of agriculture (Lijalem et al., 2017). The office of agriculture provided extension services such as veterinary service and distribute improved forage species such as lablab and cowpea. It also develops business plan for HABP beneficiary households. The office also sometimes assists some farmers in restocking goats in collaboration with donors and NGOs.

SDARC assisted farmers in terms of introducing adaptive forage species such as cowpea, vetch lablab, oat and elephant grass (Alemu and Amare, 2016). Similarly, it tried to improve the breed through village based participatory selection approach. However, these efforts have been constrained by shortage of finance and skilled human resources.

It was common to see differences in the roles and responsibilities of men and women in goat production. For instance, men are expected to be involved in herding goats in remote areas (the main herd). Women are expected to feeding and watering kids around the homestead, milking the goats. Unless the household has shortage of male labor for herding, females are not supposed to herd goats going far distance. This is due to the respects given to females in the society and fear of sexual violence. As a result, those who have male labor shortage in the household hire labor on yearly basis mostly in kind payments (sharing 1 out of 4 newly borne kids to the herder).

During the FGD we came to know that any goat producer do not want to share his bucks to other goat producers in the same village or in his/her neighborhood. S/he would rather prefer to sell it to someone else whom s/he does not know. The reasons were, first they want to have and maintain their own unique herds for different purposes (for instance, better productivity and social prestige) and second they believe if they sell it in their village, the person who purchased their goat will take their luck/wealth. As a result, they do not want to share their unique goats in their village.

Women in the study area are culturally prohibited to consume whole goat milk (Lijalem et al, 2017). The focus group discussants said it is because of the reason that if the woman drinks goats’ milk, she will be strong and she refuses to obey her husband’s order. Hence, girls and women are not allowed to drink whole milk.

There was shortage of animal health extension workers who can serve the farming community through providing veterinary services to their goats in particular and all other animals in general. Animal health posts in the kebeles particular and the district in general are not furnished with adequate equipment and drugs to provide quality veterinary services to goats.

Though the root cause of the problem needs to be further identified, animal health workers in the area indicated that the efficacy level of vaccines provided to livestock in the area is very low. This could be either because of problems in maintaining cold chains or identification of strains of diseases for which the vaccine is provided.

The animal health workers do not have transport services such as car, motor bicycle and mule used to travel from the health post to kebeles and villages to provide veterinary service. Moreover, the veterinarians do not have transport service used to travel from the district capital to the kebeles.

ACSI is the sole credit service institute operating in the area. However, its high interest rate (18%) is not affordable by smallholder farmers (Lijalem et al, 2017). Moreover, the system needs group collateral to ensure the repayment of loans. The problem with the group collateral is that some of the group members take the loan and leave the area so that other group member should repay the loan. This has created a sense of insecurity among the members of the society to take credit using group collateral.

In the long dry seasons and spring, trees and bushes shade their leaves, which make goats to starve and reduce their body size, become infertile and could cause death of animals. There is no alternative source of feed to rescue the animals during such seasons. Feed marketing including roughages and concentrates (especially industrial by products) is not common in the area. Hence, feed shortage constrains Abergelle goat production and the benefit of farmers and other actors along the value chain.

Goat production in the area is based on browses in the bushes and forests. The farmers do not practice providing supplementary feeds such as concentrates and silage to goats throughout the year. This is because there is no practice of providing supplementary feed to goats. Farmers in the area do not make silage and the limited amount of harvested feed is used for larger animals. They perceive that goats can survive on browses and do not need extra feed any time. This traditional feeding practice has to be changed in order to transform the livelihood of farmers through development of goats’ value chain in the area.

The incidence of disease, internal and external parasites caused body loss and death of goats there by produce economic loss to the farmers in particular and to the district and in general.

Abergelle goat breed is adaptable to the area though its meat and milk productivity is very low. On top of the small body size of the breed, inbreeding problem has negatively affected the majority of the herd in terms of body size and the resulting body condition of goats from the area. The same is true with milk yield. On the other hand, the farmers’ livelihood strategy is inclined to goat production than crop production due to recurrent drought and the fragility of agricultural land in the area. Therefore, to sustain goat production as the major livelihood strategy, there has to be improvement of the breed either through selection or in crossing with other indigenous or exotic goat breeds.

During discussions made with agricultural experts and farmers, it has been mentioned the presence of relatively unique Abergelle breeds (ecotypes) in some specific places (e.g. Ambadago and Aresgi villages), which are preferred by the local community for their body size and milk yield is an opportunity for improving production and productivity through selection.

Of the total area of the district potential arable land, bushy, and forest areas take the lion share (87%). Only 9.9% is used for arable land and 2.5% for settlement. This can be used for improved forage development that can resist to moisture stress.

Water is vital for livestock production for drinking and forage development along irrigation canals. Abergelle district is endowed with water bodies such as rivers (Tirary, Zamera etc.) and Tekezie artificial lake. Hence, it is a potential resource for Abergelle goat production for smallholder farmers.

Understanding the need to introduce improved forage species, SDARC has verified the adaptability of forages like cowpea, lablab, and elephant grass in specific locations of Abergelle district. The availability of such improved forage species can be considered as good opportunity for future interventions in Abergelle goat value chain development.