Challenges of smallholder sheep and goat keeping in rural communities of Aguata Agricultural Zone of Anambra State, Nigeria

Livestock accounts substantially for the income as well as the physical and intellectual development of rural households which are primary drivers of the present government transformation agenda. The study ascertained the challenges of smallholder sheep and goat keeping in rural communities of Aguata Agricultural Zone of Anambra State. Interview schedule was developed and used to collect data from 72 respondents. The main primary occupations of the respondents were farming (43.1%) and trading (41.7%). About 43.0% and 40.3% earned annual income of between 10,000.00 to 20,000 Nigeria Naira ($57.5 to $115) and less than 10,000 Naira ($57.5), respectively, from keeping of sheep and goat. The average number of goat kept per household was seven while that of sheep was five. Majority (65.3%) of the respondents preferred keeping of goats to sheep (33.3%) while only 1.4% had no choice. About 72% of the respondents used intensive management system while 27.8% were engaged in semi-intensive management system. The major challenges of keeping sheep and goat in the zone were diseases attack (Mean [M] = 1.19), lack of veterinary services (M = 1.19) and lack of feeds (M =1.00). The causes of high mortality in sheep and goat were perceived to be diseases (M = 1.44) and poor feeding (M = 1.03). The study concluded that the number of sheep and goat kept was very few and as such uneconomical. They consequently faced challenges of attack of diseases, lack of veterinary services and lack of animal feeds.