Abstract
This research was undertaken with the objectives of assessing production and marketing practices, constraints and opportunities of goat production in Yabello District. The results were based on surveying of 100 households and the markets monitoring in the District. Then, the average goat holding in the woreda was 14.43 heads. Of these, female goats account a higher proportion (48.43%) which is due to the fact that pastoralists kept their female goats longer than the male. Goats in Yabello woreda were solely kept for the purposes of generating cashes used for purchasing grains for family consumption. Considerable, proportions also used for meat and milk consumptions at home. In Study area various routine activities of goat production were shared among different family members. The activities like purchasing, selling and breeding of goats were performed exclusively by the husband. While, the husbandry roles like care of sick animal, milking, and cleaning barn, was left for women. Prominently, children also participated in herding the flock. Selection of breeding stocks for next generation was more frequently done in bucks (85%) than female animals in the District. Accordingly, half of the respondents were performed selection of breeding bucks based on their body size, pedigree and growth rate. Browsing on shrubs, bushes and tree leaves were the major feed sources for goats throughout the year. In woreda there are three local livestock market such as Haro-bake, El-waya and Yabello. Diseases of small ruminants were the first ranked production constraints of small ruminants followed by feed shortage and water scarcity.
