Preference and Importance of Goat Breeds in Households in the Diffa Region, Niger

Abstract

The Diffa Region is a livestock area par excellence in Niger, where transhumants, nomads and sedentary people raise various animal breeds. Among these breeds, only goats were concerned by this study. There are three goat breeds raised, namely the common Sahel goat, the variegated Sahel goat and the red goat of Maradi. The study will allow to better appreciate the perception of preference in goat breeds in the municipalities of the region of Diffa. To do this, 576 heads of households were interviewed in six municipalities. The collected data were analyzed with RStudio 4.4.3 software. The results from these analyses show that the population of all the municipalities prefers the common goat of the Sahel (SCG) with the number of responses varying from 10 to 93 and the variegated goat of the Sahel (SVG) from 17 to 58. Nevertheless, the breeders of Maïné-Soroa prefer the SVG breed more (min = 17 to max = 37). Significant differences were found between the preferences in CCS and SVG breeds with p-value ranging from 0.013 to 0.048. The communities prefer the CCS and SVG breeds more because they are economical. They multiply very quickly because they have twin births and they have a short interval between births. The economy is based on the breeding of goat breeds that are very popular because they have good butchering ability. The settled communities of the Diffa region have different appreciations for goat breeds depending on their agro-ecological zone. This is due to the varying potential of these breeds according to the agro-ecological zone.