Goat Breeding Objectives in Relation To Agroecological Zonation Under Dryland Farming Conditions of North Kordofan, Sudan

Twelve focus group discussions and 164 individual farmer interviews were held in 12 villages under dryland farming in different agroecological zones in North Kordofan, Sudan, during November-December 2018. The aim was to describe goat breeding objectives, ownership, and population distribution in relation to agroecological zones. Data and information collected were analyzed for descriptive statistics using SPSS (ver. 24). The highest goat numbers were in the semidesert (41.9%) and arid (35.0%) zones, holding over 75% of goat population. Overall percentage of households owning goats was 70.9%, with average flock size of four heads, mostly (94.9%) owned by women. Mature does constituted over 70.0% and female yearlings about 21.9%. No controlled mating over goat flocks was practiced, with an average of 77 goats per breeding buck. Kidding occurs mainly during the rainy and winter seasons. Lactating does were mostly (99.5%) milked once a day every morning. Milk production was ranked as the most important reason for raising goats across all agroecological zones, with highest indices at the semiarid on sand (index 0.886) and semiarid on clay (index 0.723) zones, followed by the semidesert zone (Index 0.633), and lowest indices (Index 0.500) at the desert and arid zones. Meat production was ranked 2nd in the desert (index 0.270) and semiarid on clay (index 0.262) zones, while income generation was ranked second across semidesert (index 0.300), semiarid on sand (index 0.345) and arid (0.068) zones. It was concluded that goat breeding objectives in the region should focus on milk production. Nonetheless, the multipurpose nature of goats (milk, meat, income generation, etc.) under low-input traditional dryland production systems should be taken into considerations when attempting improvement programs. Furthermore, there is a high need for genomic/genetic characterization of different goat subtypes/breeds in North Kordofan and Sudan at large.

Keywords: Goats; Breeding objectives; Agroecological zones; Dryland; Rank index