No abstract

Abstract. Strong increase in demand for animal products could benefit local producers in developing countries. This development opportunity particularly concerns suburban livestock. In Burkina Faso, the suburban area of Ouagadougou is a place for the setting up of an increasing number of breeders. Due to its importance in religious traditions, spurring its consumption in whole West Africa, mutton is a major part of this suburban production. In order to characterize sheep farming in the suburban zone of Ouagadougou, in terms of motives, practices, and economic performance, and to better understand the dynamic at play in the sheep sector, a survey has been conducted among 80 sheep farmers around Ouagadougou. The results show that suburban sheep keeping is a highly dual sector. Nearly half (42.5 %) of farms may be described as traditional livestock, while 50 % are evolving towards intensification. These two groups essentially differ in terms of animal genetic and feeding management, farm infrastructure, and farmer education level. Economically, the whole sample tends to indicate a lack of profitability of the activity in terms of monetary income. Several factors contributing to this situation are pinpointed, namely feed and animal health constraints, flock and production management, and the market conditions.

Urbanisation in developing countries entails deep changes in the livestock sector and the management of animal genetic resources (AnGR). Sheep breeding around Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) illustrates these changes and the need to coordinate genetic improvement in general and the use of crossbreeding in particular. For this, it is important to understand breeders' choices and improvement strategy, to accompany them within a national plan for AnGR management. In a context of missing market for breeding rams, a stated choice experiment was conducted with 137 farmers, together with a characterisation of herd management practices. This survey analyses farmers' preferences for breeding rams, estimating their willingness to pay (WTP) for different traits (attributes). Their practices were characterised by a high reliance on natural pastures (82% of farmers) and a minority of crossbreeding (23%). The highest WTP was observed for disease resistance. However, the subgroup of farmers practicing crossbreeding showed a tolerance to high susceptibility. A strong preference for the white colour was revealed. Although significant, the influence of sheep body size on decision-making showed a lesser importance, again with a distinct behaviour in the subgroup practicing crossbreeding. These results illustrate the need to take account of the diversity of goals and preferences among smallholder sheep keepers to gain their adhesion to a coordinated genetic improvement framework.

Farm animal genetic resources are threatened worldwide. Participation in markets, while representing a crucial way out of poverty for many smallholders, affects genetic management choices with associated sustainability concerns. This paper proposes a contextualized study of the interactions between markets and animal genetic resources management, in the case of sheep markets in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. It focusses on the organization of marketing chains and the valuation of genetic characteristics by value chain actors. Marketing chain characterization was tackled through semi-structured interviews with 25 exporters and 15 butchers, both specialized in sheep. Moreover, revealed preference methods were applied to analyse the impact of animals' attributes on market pricing. Data were collected from 338 transactions during three different periods: Eid al-Adha, Christmas and New Year period, and a neutral period. The neutral period is understood as a period not close to any event likely to influence the demand for sheep. The results show that physical characteristics such as live weight, height at withers and coat colour have a strong influence on the animals' prices. Live weight has also had an increasing marginal impact on price. The different markets (local butcher, feasts, export market, sacrifices) represent distinct demands for genetic characteristics, entailing interesting consequences for animal genetic resource management. Any breeding programme should therefore take this diversity into account to allow this sector to contribute better to a sustainable development of the country.

A l’image de l’ensemble de la filière de l’élevage dans les pays en développement, l’élevage ovin au Burkina Faso fait face à une demande croissante, dans un contexte de production socio­économique et environnemental contraignant. Cela a donné lieu à des croisements peu maîtrisés dans la zone périurbaine de la capitale, Ouagadougou. Afin d’identifier les moyens d’enca­drer ces pratiques pour rendre durables les systèmes ovins, une enquête a été conduite auprès de 63 éleveurs évoluant dans le milieu rural de la région du Plateau Central. L’objectif princi­pal était d’évaluer les possibilités d’une gestion intégrée entre les éleveurs ruraux et les éleveurs périurbains à travers notam­ment des échanges de femelles. Les données ont été collec­tées à travers des entretiens directs à l’aide d’un questionnaire comportant des questions ouvertes et fermées. Les résultats ont montré que l’ensemble des éleveurs avaient des stratégies de sélection à travers le choix des mâles reproducteurs. Ce choix se faisait essentiellement dans leur propre troupeau (98 % des interviewés) et quelquefois dans les marchés (22 %). Les objec­tifs principaux d’amélioration concernaient le poids adulte et la croissance des jeunes, ou le maintien de la rusticité. La brebis Djallonké, variété Mossi, était la race la plus rencontrée dans la zone (présente dans 97% des troupeaux). Mettant en œuvre leurs objectifs les éleveurs croisaient leurs brebis Mossi avec des béliers Peuhls, d’un plus grand gabarit, mais de manière tem­poraire afin de limiter la perte de résistance de leur troupeau. Le lien potentiel avec la production des éleveurs périurbains par la vente de femelles semblait faire face à des contraintes culturelles. Le système de production décrit par les éleveurs présentait des contraintes de durabilité et ne permettait pas de véritable intégration avec le système périurbain. Des approches participatives devraient être mises en œuvre localement afin d’élaborer des solutions appropriées pour accroître la produc­tion et la gestion durable des ressources zoogénétiques.