2012), small carcass weight of 12 kg (MAFS 2002), and low milk production, the indigenous goats in Tanzania are regarded as low producers compared to their exotic counterparts.Įfforts to improve goat production and productivity in the country have been made using three approaches (Chenyambuga and Lekule 2014) including the introduction of exotic dairy goat breeds from temperate countries to be used directly for production. However, due to long kidding interval of 12 months (NEI 1999), advanced age at first kidding of 18–24 months (MAFS 2002), small mature size of 24–28 kg (Chenyambuga et al. The SEA goats are regarded as hardy and comparatively outperform the upgraded in many farmers’ valued traits such as disease and survivability. The animals are important for the livelihood of the resource-poor farmers especially in rural areas as they contribute towards income generation, meat and milk production for the family, and other socio-cultural functions. Tanzania has a goat population of 24.8 million (NBS 2020) most of which belong to the Small East African (SEA) breed distributed in almost all agro-ecological zones. High within population variation is observed which is important as it can be used as a basis for genetic improvement through selection. Other coat color patterns were mixed black and white for Sukuma, reddish-brown for Lindi, black and reddish-brown for Ujiji, and white and reddish-brown for Pwani and Maasai. The dominant coat color was plain white in Pare, Gogo, Maasai, and Tanga. High twinning was observed in Ujiji and Lindi goats and low for Sukuma. There were morphological variations between and within these goat populations, and based on quantitative data, the goats were categorized into two groups.
Feed shortage, prevalence of diseases, and water scarcity were the major goat production constraints. Common diseases were contagious caprine pleural pneumonia and helminthiasis. Mating was mainly uncontrolled with apron and castration being used by goat keepers as mating control methods.
More than 55% of respondents grazed their animals freely in communal lands where natural pasture was the chief feed resource. Income generation and meat production were the primary goat rearing objectives. Analysis of variance and discriminant analysis were used on quantitative data, while frequency analysis was used on qualitative data. Data on animals were collected from 688 randomly selected adult female goats and for production system description 220 households were interviewed. Therefore, the study was conducted in all agro-ecological zones in Tanzania to characterize the indigenous goats and the production system in which they are raised. The different goat populations and the production system in which they are raised are not well characterized depriving animal breeders useful information in designing and running improvement and conservation programs. Tanzania has a goat population of about 24.8 million most of which belong to the Small East African breed distributed in almost all agro-ecological zones.
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