A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF THE FRCN AND THE ESBS RADIOS ENUGU AGRICULTURAL COMMUNICATION PROGRAMMES OF SHEEP AND GOAT KEEPING PRACTICE ON THE AMECHI AND UGWUAJI SHEEP AND GOAT KEEPERS IN ENUGU SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Sheep and goat are ruminant animals that bring back food from their stomachs and chew them again. The rearing of sheep and goat is called sheep and goat keeping. The rearing of sheep and goat can be discussed on their purposes, the breeds and the origin, the management system, the feeds and feeding, the breeding system up to the time of kidding, healthcare in addition to control and prevention of diseases . The main purposes of rearing sheep and goat are either for the meat or income or religious ceremonies and festivities or getting their droppings to serve as a farm yard manure for the plants, or hides and skins for leather works, wool or even for gifts or milk production. Anyanwu et al (1998:168, and 169) therefore emphasized that

Goat and [sheep] are mainly kept in the tropics for meat production… few breeds have a fairly good ability for milk production. In the temperate zones… goats and [sheep] are kept mainly for milk production…meat, hair, and skin production are secondary to milk production.

Reasoning along the same line of Anyanwu et al, Carles (1983:56) maintained, “there are a total of five major products from sheep-meat, wool, milk, skins and manure”.

        There are many breeds of sheep and goat that thrive effectively in all parts of the world. We have the American breed, the Arabian breed, the European breed, and the African breeds. In Nigeria, we have the sheep and goat that can thrive effectively

either in the forest region or the swampy forest region or the savannah region of the country.

In Enugu state and other forest belt, the West African dwarf breed is common among goats. They are short-legged, very hardy with good meat quality. Such breeds are resistant to trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness. They are relatively small in size and can produce twins and tripplings.  

        In the North, we have the Sokoto Red, Kano Brown, Bornu white while for the sheep, we have the long-legged black sheep that have little resistance to trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness. They are the Uda, the Balami, the Yankasa that are relatively large in size, long-legged.

Anyanwu (pp. 170-171), however, subdivided all [sheep] and goat into two: the breeds found in the tropics to include- the West African Dwarf…the Hejazi of Arabic and the Moxoto of Pernambuco… the Cutch… the Sapel…the Jumnapari and Surti.

 the temperate breeds to include-the Anglo Nubian…the British Saanen…the Toggen-burg…the Angora and the Kashmeri

 The sheep and goat breeds existing in communities are the West African dwarf goat while that of sheep are the long-legged huge ones. Anyanwu (p.169) revealed that the

         …Domestic goat started life at the Asian mountain…but

have undergone changes depending on the environment

and the purpose to which improvement is directed.

For Carles (p.6), the origin and the likely area of large scale sheep production is in the “subtropical area… of Middle East (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syrian)”

        The management system of sheep and goat could be the free range or the extensive system whereby the animals are left to roam about and feed themselves. In this system, the rearer does not care for adequate feed, housing among others. This system is, however, practised where there are abundant grazing land or pastures for the animals. During farming season, this practice is not advisable since the farmers whose crops were destroyed may kill the goat and sheep. Moreover, this system may be open to thieves or wild carnivorous animals, like lions, pythons and hyenas among others.

        There is also the tethering or the semi-intensive management system whereby sheep and goat are tied with long ropes to poles or pegs in the bush to graze on the pastures. Some supplemental feedings such as kitchen wastes, peeled human food or meals can be given to the animals. It is advisable to hide them in the homes in the night or during rainfall. This is practised where there is much pressure on the land or during the planting season.

        The intensive system of management is where the sheep and goat are usually confined in houses or pens. Such houses are built with roof, dwarf walls, sand or concrete floors. In a better built houses, it is good to keep the animals on a raised slated platform with crossbars so that they can be lying on them free from their droppings or dung and urines after feeding on the feeds on the bare concrete or earthen floor. The feeds may be tied on a rope or put in a manger while water will be kept away from the pens to prevent the animals from excreting on them. This system facilitates the easy cleaning of the pen. However, the rearer provides all the feeding requirements to the animals. Anyanwu (p.173) had aptly summarised these three systems of management of keeping sheep and goat to be “(a) tethering (b) semi-stall feeding (c) herding or fencing”.

        The feeds and feedings of sheep and goat are comparably inexpensive to other ruminant animals. The animals feed on roughages such as legumes, crop residues, grasses, kitchen wastes, peels and chaffs of human foods.  Supplements such as groundnut cake, palm kernel cake, cotton seed cake, cotton seed and growers’ dried grains are necessary for the provision of both proteins, energy and vitamins to the animals. Some commercially prepared ruminant supplements are marketed within Enugu state and environs which the UGWUAJI and AMECHI sheep and goat rearers can buy at a cheap price. Pregnant and nursing ewe (female sheep) and doe (female goat) need adequate and balanced roughages as well as supplements. Water, more especially clean water is desirable at all seasons. The lamb of the female sheep or the kid of the female goat may not be fed with the roughages, concentrates or supplements immediately. They are usually given the mothers’ milk until at a particular age, they are fed with a particular quantity and quality of feeds and feeding hence Anyanwu (p.174) stressed, “the art and practice of feeding animals take into consideration the age and the type of animals fed”.

        Goat and sheep breed throughout the year. The lambs and the kids mature between 6-10 months for both sexes.  Some of the animals mature within 8-10 months but breeding that are allowed from 8-12 months before mating or crossbreeding usually develop fully, more especially the females.  In choosing the breed to rear, people do that based on the physical appearance of the group, birth weight, the rate of the animals’ growth, the multiple birthing ability of the pedigree or the parent stock.  The doe (female goat) or the ewe (female sheep) are mated when they are on heat period or need mating which lasts from1-2 days.  It comes again after three (3) weeks.  The signs of being on heat are restlessness, mounting of other animals, standing still when mounted by the males.

        Successful coition results in pregnancy or gestation that lasts from 145-153 days depending on the stock. Signs of gestation are the enlargements of the udder (breast), refusal to be mounted by the male animals, the enlargement of the vulva (vaginal opening).  During the pregnancy period, adequate feeding is required.  As soon as parturition or labour or the female animals are about to deliver their young, adequate cleaning of the pens and disinfecting the pens are necessary.  The lamb (young sheep) or the kidding (young goat) are weaned at 4-6 months when the ewe or the doe stop given their young their milk.  Young males are castrated at 1-4 weeks where necessary to control sex ratio and check indiscriminate mating of the females.  The female goat or doe usually kid three or more times in two (2) years with either one or two or three young per birth depending on the breeding stock. The female sheep or ewe lambs accordingly like the female goat or doe.

        The common diseases of sheep and goat are diarrhoea, sleeping sickness, worms, pneumonia and body parasites. The signs of illness are loss of appetite, abnormal pulse, rise in temperature, constipation or too much hard excreta, diarrhoea, difficulty or noisy breathing or coughing, dull looking, starring look, standing apart from others, foreign eyes or discharges, loss of age or weight, emaciation.

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THE NATURE AND CONSEQUENCES OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF ENUGU NORTH LGA, ENUGU STATE

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