Introduction
Kenya is a country located in East Africa. It borders Uganda to the west, Ethiopia and Sudan to the north, Somalia to the east, and the United Republic of Tanzania to the south. The equator intersects the country. The population of Kenya stands at 28 million people according to the 1999 national population census. Only 20 percent of the land is of high agricultural potential. The rest is arid and semi-arid, best suited for livestock production. Kenya experiences a bimodal pattern of rainfall with the rainy season extending from March to May and from October to December. Occasionally the rains are below normal for consecutive seasons, leading to drought.
The Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) plays a major role in biodiversity conservation, but with greater emphasis being laid on in situ conservation of agricultural biodiversity, particularly focusing on crops. ITDG is an international development agency working with marginalized communities in seven developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to develop and adopt appropriate technologies to enhance their skills and economic status. ITDG began in 1967 based on the then radical ideas of Dr Fritz Schumacher, author of the best-selling book Small Is Beautiful. ITDG’s vision is "A more equitable and just world in which technology enriches and benefits the lives of the poor. In the context of East Africa it is our wish to improve livelihoods of marginalized people in the region". Its mission statement is to build the skills of poor people in developing countries enabling them to improve the quality of their lives and those of future generations.
ITDG Eastern Africa (ITDG-EA) works in five technology areas - agriculture and pastoralism, small-scale manufacturing, rural transport, building materials and shelter and energy. Since 1996, ITDG-EA has been implementing the Marginal Farmers Project in Kathekani through the Rural Agriculture and Pastoralism Project (RAPP). The objectives of this project are:
to develop the capacity of the community to address its own livestock issues, with access to a range of technical options;
to establish a sustainable decentralized animal health system, with access to its own training capacity and referral system, and incorporation of effective existing local knowledge;
a community-based tsetse fly control project.
Kathekani - the background
Kathekani is a dryland farming area in eastern Kenya. It lies in ecological zones 5 and 6. These zones are characterized by low rainfall and high temperatures averaging 25-40 °C. The rainfall pattern is bimodal, with the distribution and reliability being poor. Average rainfall is about 600 mm per annum. The dominant tree species are Commiphora and Acacia. Grasses commonly found in this area are Cenchrus ciliaris and Eragrostis superba. It is a newly settled area with 3 000 farm families made up of about 17 300 people. The community members in this area are agropastoralists. The area is only suitable for drought-tolerant crop farming because of unpredictable rainfall, which frequently causes crop failure. The crops grown are sorghum, cowpeas, grams and millet. Only one out of four seasons is successful.
The livestock management systems in this area have been extensive. Commonly reared types of livestock are cattle, goats, sheep and chickens. The East African goat is the breed traditionally kept by this community. However, there are other breeds, such as the Galla. Increased human population has resulted in subdivision of the land, leading to changes in land tenure systems. This has increased the demand for food from livestock sources and other resultant socio-economic needs, leading to development of semi-intensive systems of livestock production.
The area borders Tsavo East National Park, a source of tsetse. It is thus highly tsetse infested, leading to heavy cattle losses from trypanosomiasis. This has compounded the land use problem with more land being opened up by the community for cultivation as farmers look for alternative livelihoods. The amount of grazing land has thus been reduced, creating a major constraint in livestock production despite the use of on-farm crop residues for nutritional purposes, a practice that is not adequate.
Efforts to control tsetse through trapping technology supplied by ITDG-EA have helped to reduce levels of tsetse and farmers are beginning to restock. Disease incidence has been lowered as a result of the reduced tsetse population. Nevertheless, farmers prefer to start restocking through goat keeping as a low-risk investment.
The major production constraints in the area are related to poor extension services provided by the government, a low resource base and frequent drought. The community faces many challenges, such as wild animal migration, environmental degradation, poverty and food shortages. The ability of individual households to identify and mobilize resources to overcome difficulties is low. The use of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) surveys combined with workshops to chart the way forward has been very effective in addressing these challenges.
Culture and goat breed conservation
Goats are culturally very important to the Akamba community of Kathekani for various reasons:
Dowry payments. During the introductory visit in a marriage process, the suitor must offer goats as gifts to the would-be parents-in-law as a gesture of a budding friendship between the two families. This implies that if a man has no goats, he has constraints when considering marriage. The colour of the goat used is always white;
Sacrificial purposes. White goats used also to be used for sacrifices to the gods;
Witchdoctor payments. The colour black was an essential feature of such payments;
Social purposes;
Honour. It is honourable to slaughter a goat for a close relative, in-law relatives or a close friend when they visit your homestead or to mark other social occasions;
Prestige.
It is prestigious to own goats and therefore a man who does earns much respect from the other community members. This became clear in an interview in Kathekani, when a farmer stated: "Without goats you are not a man, you are nothing". These cultural requirements necessitated propagation of particular breeds within the community, which was an incentive towards conservation.
Objectives of the community initiative
The farmers’ objectives in improved breeding initiatives are mainly to improve livelihoods of the Kathekani farmers through higher production of their livestock to ensure food security. This can be achieved through:
building a strong local community capacity to address livestock production constraints;
improving household income through the sale of goats for slaughter and the young crosses for breeding;
exploiting the existing local gene pool for goats to achieve higher productivity of goats.
Goat management systems
Land in Kathekani is individually owned and therefore farmers graze within their own farms. The cattle population is 21 000 and that of goats is 60 000 (1997 livestock survey by ITDG). The livestock breeds reared are indigenous. The livestock management system in Kathekani is semi-intensive. Grazing is either done individually or communally. Goats are watered in rivers, which criss-cross the area abundantly.
Although supplementation feeding of goats is minimal, it is still carried out on a small scale. Mineral supplements and on-farm by-products are used. Commonly used farm residues are maize stovers, cowpea and green gram pods. Maasai love grass and acacia pods are also used. Usually, this is used for sick animals, pregnant ones and the rest of the flock when the pastures are inadequate and when on-farm by-products are available. No commercial concentrates are provided.
Minerals for the goats are acquired locally through natural salt licks that are found along the watering points. Almost every farmer has access to these points. Those who cannot access the salt licks, or are unwilling to take their animals there because of mixing, purchase locally made salt. The Ngiluni farmers group from Kathekani makes the salt from bones, termite mounds, bricks and common salt. They sell it to other farmers for 80 shillings (K Sh), or around US$1 per kg.
Existing goat genetic resources
The indigenous goat reared by the Kathekani community is the East African goat. The Galla goat is also reared by a group of farmers but is not widespread. The community became interested in the Galla goat because of its positive traits. Two breeds form the goat gene pool, which the farmers are exploiting to improve their goat production. The major driving force behind the initiative is market demands, which are dictating the product to be produced. A description of these breeds follows.
East African goat
This is one of the most successful domestic stocks in the semi-arid lands. It is found all over East Africa from the desert to the urban areas. The colour ranges from pure white to pure black with various intermixes of roan and speckled brown. Males have pronounced manes running the full length of the back. Horns are 2.5-20 cm in length. Tassels are found in up to 30 percent of the breed. Adult males attain weights up to 35 kg and females 25-30 kg. Sexual maturity is attained at five to six months of age. The East African is superior to the Galla in fertility (89.4:75.5 percent), prolificacy (24:6 percent) and return to oestrus (it has a short postpartum interval, nine days shorter than that of the Galla).
The East African has a slow growth rate. Yearlings rarely exceed 20 kg. They are kept mainly for meat, as their milk is rarely sufficient for more than a single kid. They have potential for selection and are therefore a useful base in an upgrading programme. Their greatest asset is the ability to survive. The East African has more tolerance than the Galla to trypanosomiasis, internal parasites and pasteurellosis. This is demonstr
แนะนำเคนยาเป็นประเทศในแอฟริกาตะวันออก มันเส้นขอบยูกันดาไปทางตะวันตก ประเทศเอธิโอเปียและซูดานทางทิศเหนือ ประเทศโซมาเลียฝั่งตะวันออก และสหสาธารณรัฐแทนซาเนียทางใต้ เส้นศูนย์สูตรตัดประเทศ ประชากรของเคนยาตั้งอยู่ที่ 28 ล้านคนตามสำมะโนประชากรแห่งชาติ 1999 เพียงร้อยละ 20 ของแผ่นดินมีศักยภาพทางการเกษตรที่สูง ส่วนเหลือจะแห้งแล้ง และกึ่งแห้ง แล้ง เหมาะสมที่สุดสำหรับการผลิตปศุสัตว์ เคนยาประสบการณ์รูปแบบ bimodal ของฝน ด้วยฝนที่ขยาย จากเดือนมีนาคมถึงพฤษภาคม และเดือนตุลาคมถึงธันวาคม บางครั้งฝนจะต่ำกว่าปกติในฤดูกาลต่อเนื่อง นำไปสู่ภัยแล้งThe Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) plays a major role in biodiversity conservation, but with greater emphasis being laid on in situ conservation of agricultural biodiversity, particularly focusing on crops. ITDG is an international development agency working with marginalized communities in seven developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to develop and adopt appropriate technologies to enhance their skills and economic status. ITDG began in 1967 based on the then radical ideas of Dr Fritz Schumacher, author of the best-selling book Small Is Beautiful. ITDG’s vision is "A more equitable and just world in which technology enriches and benefits the lives of the poor. In the context of East Africa it is our wish to improve livelihoods of marginalized people in the region". Its mission statement is to build the skills of poor people in developing countries enabling them to improve the quality of their lives and those of future generations.ITDG Eastern Africa (ITDG-EA) works in five technology areas - agriculture and pastoralism, small-scale manufacturing, rural transport, building materials and shelter and energy. Since 1996, ITDG-EA has been implementing the Marginal Farmers Project in Kathekani through the Rural Agriculture and Pastoralism Project (RAPP). The objectives of this project are: to develop the capacity of the community to address its own livestock issues, with access to a range of technical options; เพื่อสร้างความยั่งยืนแบบกระจายศูนย์ระบบสุขภาพสัตว์ เข้าถึงกำลังฝึกตัวเอง และระบบอ้างอิง และประสานความรู้ที่มีอยู่ในท้องถิ่นมีประสิทธิภาพ โครงการควบคุมแมลงวัน tsetse ชุมชนKathekani - เบื้องหลังKathekani เป็น dryland การทำฟาร์มที่ตั้งในเคนยาตะวันออก มันอยู่ในระบบนิเวศเขต 5 และ 6 โซนนี้มีลักษณะ โดยปริมาณน้ำฝนต่ำและอุณหภูมิสูง 25-40 องศาเซลเซียสการหาค่าเฉลี่ย รูปฝนตกแบบ bimodal การกระจายและความน่าเชื่อถือที่ดีได้ ปริมาณน้ำฝนเฉลี่ยได้ประมาณ 600 มิลลิเมตรต่อปี ชนิดแผนภูมิหลักเป็น Commiphora และเซีย หญ้าที่พบทั่วไปในพื้นที่นี้มีหญ้า ciliaris และ Eragrostis superba มันเป็นพื้นที่จับคู่ใหม่กับครอบครัวฟาร์ม 3 000 ขึ้นประมาณ 17 300 คน สมาชิกชุมชนในพื้นที่นี้มี agropastoralists พื้นที่เหมาะสมสำหรับการป้องกันภัยแล้งพืชเกษตรเนื่องจากฝนไม่แน่นอน ซึ่งทำให้พืชผลล้มเหลวบ่อยเท่านั้น พืชที่ปลูกคือ ข้าวฟ่าง cowpeas กรัม และฟ่าง เพียง 1 ใน 4 ของซีซั่นจะประสบความสำเร็จระบบการจัดการปศุสัตว์ในพื้นที่นี้ได้อย่างละเอียด โดยทั่วไปผลิตภัณฑ์ชนิดปศุสัตว์วัว แพะ แกะ และไก่ แพะแอฟริกาตะวันออกเป็นสายพันธุ์ที่เก็บไว้แบบดั้งเดิม โดยชุมชนนี้ อย่างไรก็ตาม มีสายพันธุ์อื่น ๆ เช่น Galla ประชากรมนุษย์ที่เพิ่มขึ้นมีผลในอำเภอของแผ่นดิน นำไปสู่การเปลี่ยนแปลงในระบบที่ดินอายุงาน นี้ได้เพิ่มความต้องการอาหารจากแหล่งปศุสัตว์และอื่น ๆ ผลแก่สังคมเศรษฐกิจความต้องการ นำไปสู่การพัฒนาระบบกึ่งเร่งรัดการผลิตปศุสัตว์บริเวณเส้นขอบอุทยานแห่งชาติซาโวตะวันออก แหล่งที่มาของ tsetse ได้จึงสูง tsetse รบกวน นำขาดทุนหนักวัวจาก trypanosomiasis นี้ได้เพิ่มปัญหาการใช้ที่ดินกับที่ดินเพิ่มเติมที่เปิดขึ้น โดยชุมชนสำหรับการเพาะปลูกเกษตรกรหาวิถีชีวิตทางเลือก จำนวนที่ดิน grazing ได้ดังนั้นการลดลง สร้างข้อจำกัดสำคัญในการผลิตปศุสัตว์แม้มีการใช้ในฟาร์มพืชตกค้างสำหรับวัตถุประสงค์ทางโภชนาการ เป็นการปฏิบัติที่ไม่เพียงพอพยายามควบคุม tsetse ผ่านเทคโนโลยีดักโดยเอ ITDG ได้ช่วยลดระดับของ tsetse และเกษตรกรจะเริ่มเติมสต็อก อุบัติการณ์ของโรคมีได้ลดลงเนื่องจากประชากรลด tsetse อย่างไรก็ตาม เกษตรกรต้องเริ่มต้นเติมผ่านแพะทำให้เป็นการลงทุนความเสี่ยงต่ำThe major production constraints in the area are related to poor extension services provided by the government, a low resource base and frequent drought. The community faces many challenges, such as wild animal migration, environmental degradation, poverty and food shortages. The ability of individual households to identify and mobilize resources to overcome difficulties is low. The use of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) surveys combined with workshops to chart the way forward has been very effective in addressing these challenges.Culture and goat breed conservationGoats are culturally very important to the Akamba community of Kathekani for various reasons: Dowry payments. During the introductory visit in a marriage process, the suitor must offer goats as gifts to the would-be parents-in-law as a gesture of a budding friendship between the two families. This implies that if a man has no goats, he has constraints when considering marriage. The colour of the goat used is always white; Sacrificial purposes. White goats used also to be used for sacrifices to the gods; Witchdoctor payments. The colour black was an essential feature of such payments; Social purposes; Honour. It is honourable to slaughter a goat for a close relative, in-law relatives or a close friend when they visit your homestead or to mark other social occasions; Prestige.It is prestigious to own goats and therefore a man who does earns much respect from the other community members. This became clear in an interview in Kathekani, when a farmer stated: "Without goats you are not a man, you are nothing". These cultural requirements necessitated propagation of particular breeds within the community, which was an incentive towards conservation.
Objectives of the community initiative
The farmers’ objectives in improved breeding initiatives are mainly to improve livelihoods of the Kathekani farmers through higher production of their livestock to ensure food security. This can be achieved through:
building a strong local community capacity to address livestock production constraints;
improving household income through the sale of goats for slaughter and the young crosses for breeding;
exploiting the existing local gene pool for goats to achieve higher productivity of goats.
Goat management systems
Land in Kathekani is individually owned and therefore farmers graze within their own farms. The cattle population is 21 000 and that of goats is 60 000 (1997 livestock survey by ITDG). The livestock breeds reared are indigenous. The livestock management system in Kathekani is semi-intensive. Grazing is either done individually or communally. Goats are watered in rivers, which criss-cross the area abundantly.
Although supplementation feeding of goats is minimal, it is still carried out on a small scale. Mineral supplements and on-farm by-products are used. Commonly used farm residues are maize stovers, cowpea and green gram pods. Maasai love grass and acacia pods are also used. Usually, this is used for sick animals, pregnant ones and the rest of the flock when the pastures are inadequate and when on-farm by-products are available. No commercial concentrates are provided.
Minerals for the goats are acquired locally through natural salt licks that are found along the watering points. Almost every farmer has access to these points. Those who cannot access the salt licks, or are unwilling to take their animals there because of mixing, purchase locally made salt. The Ngiluni farmers group from Kathekani makes the salt from bones, termite mounds, bricks and common salt. They sell it to other farmers for 80 shillings (K Sh), or around US$1 per kg.
Existing goat genetic resources
The indigenous goat reared by the Kathekani community is the East African goat. The Galla goat is also reared by a group of farmers but is not widespread. The community became interested in the Galla goat because of its positive traits. Two breeds form the goat gene pool, which the farmers are exploiting to improve their goat production. The major driving force behind the initiative is market demands, which are dictating the product to be produced. A description of these breeds follows.
East African goat
This is one of the most successful domestic stocks in the semi-arid lands. It is found all over East Africa from the desert to the urban areas. The colour ranges from pure white to pure black with various intermixes of roan and speckled brown. Males have pronounced manes running the full length of the back. Horns are 2.5-20 cm in length. Tassels are found in up to 30 percent of the breed. Adult males attain weights up to 35 kg and females 25-30 kg. Sexual maturity is attained at five to six months of age. The East African is superior to the Galla in fertility (89.4:75.5 percent), prolificacy (24:6 percent) and return to oestrus (it has a short postpartum interval, nine days shorter than that of the Galla).
The East African has a slow growth rate. Yearlings rarely exceed 20 kg. They are kept mainly for meat, as their milk is rarely sufficient for more than a single kid. They have potential for selection and are therefore a useful base in an upgrading programme. Their greatest asset is the ability to survive. The East African has more tolerance than the Galla to trypanosomiasis, internal parasites and pasteurellosis. This is demonstr
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