Understanding the breeding practices and desired characteristics prioritized by farmers in communal settings is essential for the successful execution of a suitable breeding program, as emphasized by (Mueller et al. 2015; Ouédraogo et al. 2020). The current study showed some important characteristics of goats farming and breeding practices in the two AEZ of Burkina Faso.
4.1. Socio-economic characteristics of goat farmers
Our results showed that more than half (54%) of the goat farmers in the study areas were women. These findings are consistent with those reported by M’Bareck et al. (2021). The majority (88.98%) of the surveyed farmers were married, suggesting that goat farming is a common livelihood activity. This is supported by the results in Fig. 2, which demonstrate that livestock rearing, particularly goat farming, served as the primary source of income (90.32%). This highlights the crucial role of livestock farming in the rural economy. The study examined the main livestock species used for subsistence purposes by goat farmers. Goats stood out as the most essential subsistence species, indicating that they were the primary livestock raised for personal consumption and use by the farmers. These results suggested that goat farming can be practiced by individuals from all social classes of the community, regardless of their socio-economic characteristics, reinforcing the significant role of goats for their owners.
4.2. Flock size and goat population structure
The findings of this study indicate that the size of goat herds is subject to variation based on age, sex category, and the specific AEZ in which they are situated. This result is consistent with the findings of Houessou et al. (2021) who stated that goat herd size and structure were significantly related to AEZ in Benin. The current study has revealed that there is a difference in the average number of goats kept per household between the ZSO (12.93) and the ZSS (15.68). These findings indicate a smaller herd size compared to the outcomes of previous studies that documented larger herds, ranging from 23 to 57.4, as reported in Ethiopia by Guangul et al. (2013), Fantahun et al. (2016), Sheriff et al. (2020), and Tesfahun et al. (2017). Previous research findings from Burkina Faso revealed that the average number of indigenous goats kept by respondents in the ZSO was 26.5 (Kiema et al. 2015) and 21.6 (Tamini et al. 2014). The reasons for this difference could be related to factors such as pasture availability, traditional breeding practices, and other specific socio-economic and environmental factors in each zone. Reproductive females are the most significant group, followed by young females and kids. These results aligned with previous studies conducted in Ethiopia by Tsegaye and Lemma (2009), and Guangul et al. (2013), which also reported a high percentage of reproductive females, ranging from 44.79–56.6% of the total herd size followed by kids and young females following. The presence of a higher proportion of reproductive females in the herd suggests a potential for producing a larger number of offspring, which, in turn, can increase the breeding buck's workload. However, the proportion of adult bucks was found to be very low in both agro-ecological zones. The ratio of young buck and young does was about 1:3 in both the study areas. This is comparable with the inference of Zergaw et al. (2016) in Ethiopia (1:3). The finding exceed the recommended ratio of (1:25) for the traditional tropical production system suggested by Wilson and Durkin (1988). Lower proportion of young bucks compared with young does might be due of marketing of young bucks in the study areas (Abebe et al. 2020). Usually young males are preferentially first in case of need of cash. These authors highlighted that the low average number of breeders per household might not be conducive to selective breeding, leading to increased inbreeding and reduced genetic gain. Therefore, the establishment of goat breeder cooperatives, as suggested by Tyasi et al. (2022), can facilitate decision-making and the exchange of breeding goats for a short period to enhance animal performance. Furthermore, low number of young males has implications in the breeding programs because of limited number of candidates that lead to low selection intensity and consequently to low genetic progress. Implementation CBBP suggest the raise of farmers awareness to keep young bucks until their age of selection and then unselected males could be sold to market.
4.3. Reproductive performances
The average age at the first mating of male according to respondents in this study are lower compared to the results of Tolera and Abebe (2007) and Teklewold et al. (2013) who reported an average age at first mating of 14.9 months for does in southern Ethiopia. The present finding is within the range of age at sexual maturity reported for most of the tropical goat breeds under extensive system of management (Abraham et al. 2017). Average age of first mating in this study suggest that selection at 6 months of age is feasible for the implementation of CBBP. The reported mean age at first kidding in this study (12.7 ± 3.26 months) is and in agreement with that reported by Missohou et al. (2016) for most of West African goat (12,1–18,5 months) and Abraham et al. (2017) for Begait goat (14.18 ± 1.24 months) but shorter than for Somali short-eared goats (19.9 ± 7.93 months) under traditional management conditions. The average of first mating was longer in ZSO despite that resources are relatively available in this area due to favorable climate conditions. This difference might be due to animal genotypes in the two areas. It will be interesting to develop a national-wide recording program with goat farmers to collect real-time reproductive performance data for each subpopulation. Furthermore, the average duration of bucks use seems longer and can lead to parent-offspring mating regarding the average age at first mating. Parent-offspring mating can increase inbreeding in population. Luckily, it has been reported that open grazing system reduce the probability of mating between related animals and consequently inbreeding level (Nandolo et al. 2016). Also, in a context of CBBP, exchanges of breeding should be encouraged to reduce inbreeding. The average kidding interval (KI) found in this study (7.5 ± 2.32 months) is in agreement with reported KI for Begait goat which is 8.4 ± 1.37 months (Abraham et al. 2017).
4.4. Breeding practices and selection criteria
In the study area, uncontrolled mating is the common mating practice and access to reproduction technology such as artificial insemination is still limited. Consequently, almost goat famers relied on bucks from their own herd or from neighboring herds for mating. This is facilitated by the fact that the goats graze together. This result is consistent with the findings of (Gnanda et al. 2016), who reported that most goat herders in Burkina Faso do not control mating because of constraints imposed by the extensive farming system. Several previous studies have showed that it is difficult to control mating due to constraints imposed by the shared grazing system (Lomba 2015; Lorato et al. 2017; Tyasi et al. 2022). In such a context, where the reproduction of livestock is not controlled, the risks of genetic dilution of ancestral populations are very high, especially when several breeds cohabit in the same area as observed in this study. This could explain the high genetic diversity and introgression observed in some local goat’s subpopulations of Burkina Faso by Traoré et al. (2009) and Akounda et al. (2023). Therefore, the implementation of a breeding program in the study areas must consider the involvement of all goat farmers within each community (Karnuah et al. 2018; Kaumbata et al. 2021; Tyasi et al. 2022). Common use of bucks in open grazing system could be an advantage when implementing community-based breeding program because farmers could be opened for bucks’ sharing.
Castration of males is a common practice in the study areas, despite it being implemented for reasons other than mating control. This could be advantageous for the successful implementation of community breeding programs, as it can be recommended to farmers for managing undesired males, as suggested by Needham et al. (2017), Ouédraogo et al. (2020), and Tezera and Engidashet (2022). Previous research conducted in Burkina Faso, including the Southwestern region where this study was partially conducted, also reported the practice of castration for various reasons, as mentioned in this study (Ouédraogo et al. 2020). However, the findings of the present study is not in accordance with the findings of Nguluma et al. (2020), who reported that the majority of goat famers in Tanzania employed the apron technique to control mating in males. Most (78.23%) of the respondents had own bucks. Farmers without breeding males either buy bucks from local markets or got buck service from their neighbors. This finding is in line with previous findings (Abraham et al. 2017). The findings of this study on various reasons for culling among farmers have significant implications for the implementation of Community-Based Breeding Programs (CBBPs). These reasons include undesired body conformation, diseases, unfavorable coat color, old age, fertility issues in both bucks and does, and poor mothering ability among does. Previous studies conducted in Ethiopia (Chanie et al. 2014; Abebe et al. 2020), the United States (Maquivar et al. 2021), Iran (Didarkhah et al. 2019), South Africa (Tyasi et al. 2022), and West Africa (Dossa et al. 2015) have also reported similar practices. These findings offer valuable guidance for CBBPs to address these specific challenges and implement targeted interventions to improve overall breeding outcomes and genetic quality of goat populations. Through appropriate selection and management strategies, CBBPs can play a significant role in enhancing the productivity and sustainability of goat farming systems.
The most common way of selecting goats as parents for the coming generations is to use the offspring of a chosen parent (buck and/or doe). Linear index is the best strategy for selecting replacements in the livestock (Abraham et al. 2018). In both areas of this study, body size, maternal ability, representing the nourishing potential of kids and twinning ability were considered crucial for the selection of breeding does, whereas body size, coat color, and temperament were considered for selecting bucks. Body size has been repeatedly reported as the most preferred trait by extensive goat farmers ( Abraham et al. 2018; Sheriff et al. 2021). Our findings on trait preferences in breeding bucks and does highlight the importance of productive trait such as body size and twinning ability. This is because body size attracts high selling prices while frequent multiparous help increasing flock. The prioritization of mothering quality could be a good indicator of the mechanism by which smallholder farmers are trying to be profitable, especially in low-input goat production systems. One reason could be that kids are often sold to generate income, and therefore, well-nourished kids are expected to fetch a better price. Several other studies emphasized the importance of productive traits for goat famers in similar contexts. Indeed, in recent studies with indigenous goats in Africa, goat farmers similarly preferred body size and twining ability to breed does (Lorato et al. 2017; Abraham et al. 2018; Onzima et al. 2018; Ramzan et al. 2020; Sheriff et al. 2020; Mtshali et al. 2021). Unexpectedly, coat color was preferred over certain reproductive traits such as growth, fertility, and sexual maturity, although coat color is the least important attribute in terms of heritability. These results are similar to the report by Nguluma et al. (2020), who found that coat color was ranked as an important factor in male choices. Based on the index value, mating ability and growth rate were ranked respectively as the 6th and 8th bucks and does selection criteria, implying that the emphasis of smallholder farmers toward mating ability and growth rate is not strong. The heterogeneity in preferences for buck and does may stem from the diversity of goat breeds, production systems, and sociocultural factors among smallholder farmers. Regarding farmers preferences, genetic improvement using community-based approach should target few and relevant trait such as body size, growth and twinning ability. Indeed, according to Sölkner et al. (1998), traits to be selected for must represent the breeding goals, should be easy to measure, heritable and not too many. Given the ease of measurement and reasonably high heritability, growth-related traits, specifically weight at different ages, can be the primary targets of breeding programs for goat breeds in the two study areas in Burkina Faso.