Constraints, Opportunities and Determinants of Livestock Production in Assosa District, Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State, Western Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was carried out in three selected PA’s of Assosa district, western Ethiopia with the objectives of identifying the major constraints and opportunities of livestock production and analyzing the determinants of livestock production of sampled households. Both primary and secondary data were used. The collected data was analyzed through descriptive and cobb-douglas econometric model by using both SPSS and STATA software. For this purpose, a multi stage purposive and simple random sampling technique was used and a total of 99 sampled household heads were selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The study result showed that the average age of sampled farmers was 47.34%. 7.1% and 92.9% of selected farmers were female and male headed households, respectively with mean educational schooling of 4.25 years. The study revealed that the average grazing land size was 1.62 hectares with mean 1.64 km and 2.44 km of distance traveled by livestock to water source and sampled household head to the livestock market, respectively. The major livestock constraints identified in the study area were disease, shortage of grazing land, lack of capital and improved breed, water scarcity during the dry season and lack of artificial insemination, respectively with the livestock production opportunities of availability of veterinary supply, input access, mixed crop production system, access to credit service and feed availability. The econometric result showed that from the hypothesized 14 explanatory variables, only six variables (labor, Extension contact service, capital, grazing land, veterinary service, breeding type) were found to be statistically significant at 1 and 5% significance level in determining household livestock production. The study recommends that provision of extension service, supply of improved breed and capital along with upgrading marketing infrastructure (health and sanitary conditions) will increase the livestock production and welfare of smallholder farmers.

Keywords: Assosa district, Challenges, Opportunities, Cobb-Douglass