Socio-Economic Characteristics of Small Ruminant Smallholders in Four District of Northern Egypt

Metawi, H. R.; Shalaby, N. A.; Gabr, A. A.; El- Bassiouny, Eman G.

doi:10.21608/jappmu.2019.43004

Socio-Economic Characteristics of Small Ruminant Smallholders in Four District of Northern Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Animal Production Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Egypt

² Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mansoura, Egypt

³ Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mansoura, Egypt.

10.21608/jappmu.2019.43004

Abstract

The study seeks to characterize socio-economic and farm characteristics of small ruminant smallholders in four districts of northern Egypt. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection from 60 small ruminants’ farmers and analyzed with descriptive statistics. Findings show that the average age of respondents included in this study was about 46.6±13.6 years and across the four districts farmer age was not significantly different. The present results showed a high illiteracy rate (75%) among small ruminant farmers across the four districts. Majority (68.4%) of the respondents were identified themselves as full-time farmers, derived that household income from the sale of crops and/or animals only. However, the average household size was 6.2±2.2 persons and about 66.2% of household size are men. The results cleared a positive relationship between education level and access to off farm job. The average land holding per household in the study area is estimated as 6.6±3.3 acres. There is negative correlation between total land holding and herd size. Across the four districts, the data showed that the overall average of herd size consists of 68.1% sheep, 21.1% goats and 10.8% large ruminant. Suckling age represent larger proportion in the flock for sheep and goats, while breeding females is the second largest age group in the flock. On the other hand, lamb/kid is the lowest age groups in the flock which indicated that farmers are forced to rely early marketing of their lambs/kids. Thus, socio-economic and farm characteristics offer significant input in designing effective small ruminant programs.

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