L'élevage des petits ruminants en milieu villageois au Cameroun. Première partie: les productivités

Small ruminants husbandry in traditional flocks in Cameroon First part : Productivities. After a one year survey among West African Dwarf sheep and goats in four villages and seven flocks of the North-West province of Cameroon, the constraints to increased productivity were studied. Because of agricultural activities leaving little time and few fields to guarantee good feeding and breeding management, mortalities were high, especially in kids and lambs, which limited the production. Reproductive performances, animal viability and body weights were combined to obtain three overal productivity indices for two flocks of goats. The first one was characterized by long intervals between parturitions (14months) and lower productivity indices (14, 7kg of one year old kid per dam per year) than the second flock where goats were bred with a Toggenburg buck (47, 1 kg of one year old kid per dam per year). However, adult mortalities and thefts were so high in this second flock (62 per cent) that productivity fell to 17, 9 kg of one year old kid per dam per year.