Goats play a crucial role in improving livelihoods and food security in Africa. They have various functions in communities in developing countries, from providing food security to being a liquid form of cash and playing a role in ceremonial occasions.
Indigenous and locally developed types exhibit a wide range of phenotypic diversity but are commonly well adapted to the harsh environment in which they need to survive and produce. This chapter aims to provide background information on the current smallholder management practices of goat keepers in Southern Africa.
In Africa, goats are deeply entrenched in almost every African culture, particularly within communities that are not able to keep large livestock [1]. Goats offer advantages in animal production as they have a relatively high productivity in harsh environments, use inexpensive feed resources, have a short reproductive cycle and have higher prolificacy when compared to cows [1, 2].
Following the global trend, the African goat population has also increased over the last five years to represent 41% of the world’s population, and currently approaches 423 million goats. Approximately 35 million of these goats are part of the Southern African population.
Goats have been an important part of humanity since their domestication 10 000 years ago and they have since spread across the globe [5, 6]. Their roles and relative importance are not static but vary according to the agro-ecological zone, production system and socio-cultural context in which they are found [7]. Goats are one of the most important livestock species in developing countries [8, 9].
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Their importance hinges on the fact that they provide meat, hides, fibre, and can be milked for home consumption [1, 10, 11]. Goats are also used for socio-economic purposes, such as festive, religious and ceremonial occasions [7, 12, 13]. They play an important economic role, providing cash-flow and being an accessible source of credit in order to meet immediate social and financial obligations [9]. Goats are therefore often described as the “village bank” [9, 14].
Goats and sheep are the preferred livestock species in dry areas due to their ability to convert poor quality pasture into good quality protein for human consumption [15]. Additionally, because of their small size, goats allow the slaughter and consumption of the entire carcass by a family in few days, without the risk of deterioration due to the absence of conserving/cooling facilities in villages of developing countries [1, 16, 17].
Goats have the potential to decrease poverty in Africa due to the role they play in food security. Through the exchange of goats for agricultural labor, they could potentially increase food security for many people in rural areas where crop production is their main activity and source of food [18]. Goat meat can significantly contribute to food security in terms of preserved (dried) protein, as their meat is of high nutritional value, with superior lean characteristics [19]. Furthermore, food security can be increased through exploiting synergies between crops and livestock, using manure and conversion of crop by-products by livestock [20, 21, 22].
Livestock plays an important role in the production of staple foods, such as cereals. They provide fertiliser (via manure) and contribute to land preparation by means of draught power. Additionally, they can be sold to generate cash necessary to buy resources for farming practices [20]. Therefore, livestock can contribute to an increase in both the area of land cultivated, as well as the productivity and efficiency with which crops are produced, resulting in the sustainability of farming systems [20]. It is estimated that worldwide livestock manure supplies up to 23% of gross nitrogen input in mixed crop-livestock systems and approximately 12% for cropping in developing countries [23].
Despite these well-known arguments, the real contribution of goats at household level has not been quantified, as most valuation systems depend on monetary standards which only take the financial contribution into account, and frequently neglect the non-monetary contribution of goats. Thus the real contribution of goats to improved livelihoods due to increased food security, especially for poor-resource communities, is unknown [13].
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The Role of Goats in Southern Africa
Importance of Indigenous Goats
Goats play a vital role in the cultural, social and economic life of rural communities. Indigenous goat breeds contribute significantly to both food security and to improved livelihoods for various resource-poor communities, especially those in rural and hard-to-reach areas [11, 24, 25]. Althought the information on the real contribution of goats to human food security and livelihoods is scarce [26], their role and relative importance varies noticeably across regions and cultural groups.
The role of goats is socioeconomic well-being of people in terms of nutrition, income, savings, insurance against emergencies, cultural and ceremonial purposes [7]. Goats are used to help family members, conduct ceremonies and rituals, make linkages with ancestors, pay bride wealth (lobolo), and gain social status. Furthermore, goats play a complementary role to other livestock in the utilisation of available feed resources and provide one of the practical means of using vast areas of natural grassland in regions where crop production is impractical [7, 18].
Goats are multipurpose animals which have been bred for milk, skin, hair, and meat. They can provide meat and milk for human consumption and are one of the easiest and most readily accessible sources of income available to meet immediate social and financial needs of village farmers [5, 9, 18, 27]. Goats are also valued for their productivity, adaptation capacity and disease resistance [28].
A survey by Mataveia et al. [29] in Mozambique revealed that goats and cattle are used as investments and status symbols. Additionally, they play a pivotal role in traditional ceremonies [8] and generate income among communal households through sales of goats and their products. Improvement in goat production and commercialization have a positive impact on the whole value chain, including processors and marketers [28, 30, 31, 32, 33].
Southern African Goat Populations and Their Distribution
According to FAOSTAT [34], during the last decade there was an increase in goat production globally and currently there are more than 1 billion goats, with Africa contributing 36.2%, Asia 58.2%, Americas 3.5%, Europe 1.7% and Oceania 0.4%. In Southern Africa, goats are the second most important livestock species after cattle [13]. Approximately 96% of the world’s goat population is kept in developing countries, of which 64% are found in rural arid (38%) and semi-arid (26%) agro-ecological zones [13].
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The top-ten countries producing goat meat are all from Asia and Africa; indicating the importance of goat meat to people in resource-poor areas [5]. In Africa, goat meat production has increased from 1.1 million tons in 2008 to 1.3 million tons in 2017 [4]; of which the majority is produced and consumed locally (within households) [5, 35].
The Southern African goat population currently consists of approximately 38 million goats [36]. There are various goat breeds in Southern Africa, of which the Mashona, Matabele, Tswana, Nguni, Landim [13] and Pafuri [29] are the dominant ones.
The goat populations in Southern Africa vary between countries: these variations in goats population are summarised in Table 1. Tanzania has the highest number with 18.9 million goats while Botswana has the smallest goat population (1.4 m) in Southern Africa [34].
| Country | Population (in millions) |
|---|---|
| Angola | 4.7 |
| Botswana | 1.4 |
| Malawi | 8.9 |
| Mozambique | 3.7 |
| Namibia | 1.9 |
| South Africa | 5.2 |
| Eswatini | 2.4 |
| Tanzania | 18.9 |
| Zambia | 2.9 |
| Zimbabwe | 4.7 |
FAO [37] reported that there is approximately 576 goat breeds currently distributed across the world, with 17% of these in Africa. Although goats are found in all types of ecological zones, they are mainly concentrated in tropical, dry zones. As a result of natural selection, goats exhibit a wide range of physiological diversity which results in an ability to adapt to different environments [35]. The main breeds of indigenous goats breed in Southern Africa are shown in Table 2 (Figure 1).
| Country | Breed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Angola | Angola dwarf | [38] |
| Botswana | Tswana | [38, 39, 40, 41] |
| Malawi | Malawi goats | [38, 42, 43] |
| Mozambique | Pafuri, Tete, Cabo Delgado and Landim | [12, 38, 41, 42] |
| Namibia | Capriviti, Ovambo | [44] |
| South Africa | Boer*, Kalahari Red*, Savanna*, Nguni, Tswana, Venda, xhosa, Swazi Zulu and Tankwa | [32, 38, 45, 46, 47] |
| Eswatini | Nguni and Swazi | [13, 38, 45] |
| Tanzania | Maasai, Gogo, Small East African, Sukuma, Sonjo, Pare, Kunene and Kavango | [48, 49] |
| Zambia | Tswanaand Matabele | [38] |
| Zimbabwe | Matabele, Binga, Chipinge, Matopo, Tswane, Shurugwi and Tsholotsho | [13, 38, 41, 50] |
*The Boer, Kalahari Red and Savanna are commercial meat-type goat breeds that were locally developed.
Figure 1. Some of the indigenous goat breeds found in southern Africa region [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56].
| Breed | Birth | Kid mortality (%) | Body Weight (Kg) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Months | 3 | 6 | 12 | Mature | |||||||
| Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | ||||||
| Boer [10, 57, 58] | 4.0 | 3.5 | 35-61 | 22.3 | 40-50 | No | 92.0 | 120-140 | 70-90 | ||||
| Landim [10, 58, 59, 60] | 2.5 | 2.3 | 37.0 | 9.6 | 8.2 | 14.3 | 12.3 | 22.0 | 21.6 | 50.0 | 35.4 | ||
| Swazi [61] | 2.0 | 1.8 | 30.0 | No | No | 8.0 | No | 14.5 | No | 35.2 | 30.0 | ||
| Matabele [8, 13, 62] | 2.5 | 2.5 | 30.0 | No | No | 11.3 | 10.2 | 18.4 | 17.5 | 50-55 | 39.0 | ||
| Malawi [13, 43] | 2.0 | 1.8 | 16.7 | 9.0 | 8.9 | 25.0 | No | No | No | 29.0 | 21.0 | ||
| Pafuri [13, 56] | 3.0 | 2.4 | No | 8,0 | No | 10.1 | No | 16.7 | No | 60.0 | 43.0 | ||
| Tswana [13, 63, 64, 65] | 4.3 | 3.6 | 33.3 | 13.4 | 11.4 | 17.8 | 16.2 | 25.3 | 9 | 444.0 | 40.0 | ||
| Kalahari red [66, 67] | 2.7 | 2.0 | 19.7 | 9.8 | 8.3 | 15.6 | 12.8 | No | No | 115 | 75.0 | ||
| Savanna [66, 68] | No | No | 17.5 | 30 | 25 | No | No | No | No | No | 60.0 | ||
Table 3 shows the production parameters of some indigenous goats in Southern Africa under communal conditions. Because of their small physical size and superior adaptation traits, indigenous breeds are still preferred in the harsh environments of Southern Africa [10].
According to Sebei et al. [69], the major constraints to goat production are the high mortality rates among kids and slow growth among those that survive. The high disease and parasite challenge and low levels of nutrition contribute to the commonly observed poor growth performance resulting in lower production and reproduction performance [70].
| Breed | Age at first kidding (Months) | Kidding interval (Months) | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boer | 9-15 | 8-9 | [71, 72] |
| Landim | 12-15 | 8-10 | [59, 60] |
| Swazi | 12 | 8 | [13, 45] |
| Matabele | 10-12 | 8-10 | [8, 13] |
| Malawi | 12-15 | 8-9 | [13, 43] |
| Pafuri | 14-16 | 9-10 | [13, 56] |
| Tswana | 12-14 | 8-9 | [13, 63] |
The reproductive performance (age at first kidding and kidding interval) of some indigenous goats in Southern Africa are shown in Table 4. Gracinda et al. [60] suggested that supplementing goats with highly nutritive alternative feed sources has a positive effect on physiological functions. Supplementation with lupin grain [78] and soybean meal or corn grain [79], can improve reproduction efficiency by reducing the age at puberty and increasing ovulation rates. Energy deficiency decreases kid growth, and has an adverse effect on reproduction [80, 81].
Goat Production Systems
In Southern Africa, small ruminant production systems are classified as traditional (communal) or commercial (intensive) production systems. Most local and indigenous goats are kept in small-scale production systems in communal and resource-poor areas [82]. These systems depend on the exploitation of resources in dry-land areas, and a balance between the livestock’s requirements and the environment’al resources [83]. Kaufmann et al. [83], also classifies this system as a “social-ecologogical system”.
The traditional production system is characterised by informal labour (mostly from a family member), commonly with low livestock numbers per unit area and minimal use of technology and other inputs [84, 85]. The system is often hindered by land and water shortages, infections and predators [29]. The smallholders generally do not have the skills or resources available for animal recording and there is uncontrolled breeding, often resulting in inbreeding. The traditional production system is further divided into two main production systems, namely the mixed crop-livestock system and the pastoral production system [1, 86, 87].
Mixed Crop-Livestock System
The mixed crop-livestock system is used in most member states of the Southern African Development Communities Countries (SADC), including Mozambique [13]. This system is characterised by raising a small number of goats together with other livestock, such as cattle, pigs and poultry. Livestock and crop cultivation are maintained as complementary ventures; e.g. animals provide manure that will be available for fertilising the soil for crop production while livestock in return benefit by feeding on crop residues during the time of feed shortages [87, 88]. This system is characterised by low managerial and financial inputs [89]. It is an extensive farming system, with free-ranging, herding and tethering as the main management systems.
Mixed Crop-Livestock System
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