ASARECA, ICARDA, ILRI, NARO move to boost goat productivity via community breeding of indigenous goats

BY BEN MOSES ILAKUT

KIBAALE & BULIISA—UGANDA: Goat farmers, agricultural extension officers, value chain actors and local leaders in the districts of Kibale District in Western Uganda and the oil rich Buliisa District also in Western Uganda have received a mindset changing training and sensitization on establishment of Community Based Breeding Programmes (CBBPs) for Small Ruminants. The training which aimed at increasing productivity and profitability for small scale farmers belonging to Buseesa Farmers Association in Kibaale, and Kirama Goat Breeders’ Association in Buliisa was undertaken on 25-29 August 2025.

 

Objectives of the training

The objectives of the training included: Creating awareness and increasing adoption of CBBPsfor small ruminants among goat farmers in Uganda; building the capacity of researchers, extension agents, and farmers, especially youth and women in designing and managing CBBPs, and supporting their scaling as a sustainable approach to improve small ruminant productivity and profitability in Uganda; enhancing knowledge of farmers on welfare of goats with emphasis on appropriate production and management systems; enhancing capacity of farmers in collective goat production and collective marketing; fostering inclusive knowledge exchange and south-south learning by building on regional experiences such as the learning from Ethiopia learning event undertaken in March 2025; and drawing action points towards adoption and scaling of CBBPs by goat farming communities; and ensuring the adoption of gender-smart and climate-resilient breeding solutions.

 

ASARECA, ILRI, and ICARDA presented to the farmers in Buliisa district a kit to kick-start data collection under the CBBP

 

Starter packs provided

To start off the farmers ASARECA provided each of the farmers’ groups with an assortment of items aimed at promoting the CBBPs. The kitty for each farmer group comprised a Samsung data collection tablet, 1,000 ear tags, a platform digital weighing scale, a hanging digital weighing scale, and an ear tag applicator. In Kibaale, the items were handed over to the farmers by the Kibale District Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mr. John Katotoroma on August 27, 2025, while in Buliisa they were handed over by the Sub- County chief, Mr. Rogers Kiiza, who was representing the CAO.

 

World Bank support via AICCRA

The training was organized by ASARECA in collaboration with global and regional partners under Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) Project (https://aiccra.cgiar.org/), a consortium comprising Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT—the lead institution for the AICCRA project and ILRI among other key partners.  The consortium is working with the National Agricultural Research Organization NARO, Bulindi Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (BuZARDI) and government extension and veterinary offices in the two districts. The initiative is funded by the World Bank and aims to strengthen the technical, institutional, and human capacity needed to enhance transfer of climate-relevant information, decision-making tools, and technologies in support of scaling efforts in IDA-eligible countries in Africa. The project focuses on the following major components including: Knowledge generation and sharing through development of climate-informed agricultural advisory services and decision-making tools; Strengthening partnerships for delivery of climate-smart innovations in agriculture; and Validating climate-smart agriculture innovations through piloting.

 

Drawing ICARDA expertise

The consortium is working with ICARDA researchers to transfer successful and proven technologies and innovations which have already posted impressive increase in goat stock and quality to Eastern Africa., especially in Ethiopia. The ICARDA experts, complemented by ILRI and NARO livestock specialists supported the farmers to undertake baseline data collection on goat flocks as a foundation for practicing breeding best practices. “Ethiopia started CBBP 16 years ago with a stock of 6 farmers. The numbers have grown exponentially covering 300 villages with nearly all homes having goats. We have all the evidence that CBBP brings benefits to the livelihoods of farmers,” said Dr. Aynalem Haile, a Small Ruminant Breeder/ICARDA Country Coordinator for Ethiopia.

 

Farmers in Kibaale and Buliisa quickly learnt to tag their goats, and point to basic genetic identifiers following the training

 

CBBPs offer benefits such as: Helping farmers to select animals that are high yielding in both meat and milk production, mature quickly, fatten easily, eat less food, are tolerant to drought and resistant to diseases; helps to preserve genetic diversity in livestock populations by conserving and improving local breeds within the community; empowers women and youth by allowing them to contribute animals with desirable traits hence improving local breeds and enhancing productivity, household income and food security. By involving local breeders, CBBPs also strengthen community involvement in sustainable livestock management.

 

Dismantling poor practices and wrong mindsets

Speaking to the farmers, the agricultural extension field workers (immediate technical outreach officers), veterinary experts, and local government leaders in the two districts, Dr. Haile, sought to dismantle long held beliefs that have undermined the goat improvement efforts by African governments by disposing them with realistic propositions to shift counterproductive mindsets. “African governments often make huge investments in importing exotic breeds from South Africa and Europe, but such initiatives often fail because they do not address the core problem,” he alerted the enthusiastic participants.

 

Exposing the myths and reviewing practices

Some of the myths/bad practices that were laid bare included: The use of random breeds devoid of any genetic historical trace for desired attributes such as meat production, twinning and fast growth; the wrong mindset that indigenous breeds are inferior; the inherent wrong belief that a big-sized goat is always good; the mal practice of focusing on breeding without due attention to animal health and nutrition; holding unfounded beliefs against the black goats thereby breeding to change colour hence eroding the genetic integrity of the black indigenous goats which otherwise offer high quality meat.

 

 

“We must change the mindset against these myths and poor practices in total so as to realize that indigenous breeds are resilient to the weather conditions, adaptable to available forage and fodder, are resistant to diseases and have a potential to gain optimum weight if well-bred and fed.” Dr. Haile explained to the participants. “In fact, exotic breeds easily succumb to disease and death. Keeping them safe is much more expensive than investments in raising the profile of local breeds.”

 

Dr. Tesfaye Getachew Mengistu, also A senior Ruminants researcher from ICARDA advised the farmers to emphasize on the welfare of their breeding stocks to get optimum results. “Selection of breeders alone is not a magic bullet. The welfare and proportion of breeding males to females must be reasonable,” Dr. Getachew tipped the farmers. “Using very few breeding bucks (male goats) to serve a disproportionately high number of does (female goats) and inbreeding should be avoided, for best results.”

ICARDA expert, Dr. Getachew takes framers in Buliisa through data collection basics during the training

 

Correct mindsets and practices

Participants were taken through best practices to ensure stocks continue improving in weight/size, attain more resilience to diseases, produce better meat quality, and ensure goat enterprises break-even within a period of two years. Some of the practices included: Defining breeding objectives such provision of high-quality beef, provision of hides, provision of breeding bucks and provision of quality milk. Other best practices included: selecting the best bucks based on evidence collected on their genetic qualities; castrating the non-selected bucks and fattening them for sale; continuous evaluation of bucks, starting from baseline information recorded by the community supported by research and extension; and acknowledging that big is not always the solution. “Big exotic animals may not be suitable to your local situation and they are not sustainable,” Dr. Haile counselled the farmers in the presence of local government leaders in the two districts.

 

 

The farmers and the enumerators were also taken through animal grading criteria, choice of best animals and lowest productive animals, data capture, recording, presentation and sharing. A special training of enumerators on data capture including use of data collection equipment was also undertaken. Within the next 40 days, the enumerators will continue to capture data from all farmers and input it into the community database, which will be monitored by the district veterinary officers in coordination with NARO and ASARECA. The validated data will then be then be entered into the DTREO database system for monitoring and management of established CBBPs by ICARDA.

 

Details of the training

Kibale district

The targeted community was Buseesa Goat farmers Association, which has 33 members, with individuals owning on average 30 goats, with the lowest individual ownership of 10 goats and the highest individual ownership of up to 200 goats.

 

The CAO Kibale District, Mr. John Katotoroma stated that he had been converted by the evidence based expert briefing on the benefits of the CBBP approach. He  praised ASARECA and partners, National Agricultural Research Organization NARO, Bulindi Zonal Agricultural   Research and Development Institute (BuZARDI), the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) Project (https://aiccra.cgiar.org/) in partnership with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, the lead institution for the AICCRA project, ILRI, and ICARDA, and a above all, the World Bank for training farmers and agricultural extension officers in the district on Community Based Breeding Programme (CBBP).

“The work you are doing is meant to make real and practical improvements in the livelihoods of farmers in Kibaale,” the CAO said while officiating at the closing ceremony of the two-day training. “I urge the agricultural extension officers to follow up this life-changing initiative by monitoring every step in the development of the initiative. This pricey offer must succeed,” the CAO said on August 26, 2025 at Kibaale Sub-County headquarters. He CAO enumerated various existing Government of Uganda initiatives which are available in the district for the farmers to take advantage of to ensure success of CBBP. These included Parish Development Model and Youth Livelihoods Fund among others.

 

 

The Kibale District Production Officer, Lumu Mike Alfred as did the sub-county chief, Buseesa, Kyamanywa Willy Fred, pledged to support the breeding programme by ensuring extension officers monitor and collect data to track progress. “As government our work gets easier with such initiatives that help framers increase productivity and increase their income,” he said.  The District Veterinary Officer, Ms. Immaculate Akusekera, who is also the focal person for CBBP monitoring, said the association will serve as a learning centre where government goat improvement efforts will benchmark.

 

Buliisa District

In Buliisa District, the target was the 20 members of Kirama Goat Breeders’ Association with individual farmers owning an average flock of 50 goats with those considered to the most successful owning between 100 to 300 goats. The ASARECA, NARO, ICARDA, ILRI teams were joined by the Representative of the Chief Administration Officer, Mr. Tumusiime Tadeo who serves as the District Planner; District Veterinary Officer Mr. Mubiru Rashid and the District Production Officer, Ms. Doreen Babihemaiso.

 

The farmer Association Chairman, Michael Sabiiti noted that the Association members comprise 4 women, 5 youth and 11 men including persons with disabilities. He explained that farmers have been facing a number of challenges including poor access to agricultural extension services, poor veterinary outreach, poor market access and animal theft.

The Sub County Chief, Mr. Rogers Kiiza, said the objective of increasing productivity is both qualitative and quantitative through breeding. “Through this initiative, the number of high-quality goats will increase and the number of farmers owning the stocks will increase. The Association will be a learning centre for scaling out the innovation,” he noted.

The District Veterinary Officer praised the farmers for forming the Association and showing enthusiasm in receiving knowledge. He confirmed the value of goats, noting that the starting sale price for a goat is UGX. 200,000. “The market is available,” he asserted. He agreed with the farmers that there was previously no deliberate effort in the district to deliberately breed indigenous goats to increase productivity and meet the market expectations.

 

 

Mr. Muhumuza, considered the most successful farmer in Kirama Goat Breeders Association with a stock of 300 goats, informed participants that he started with a stock of only 20 goats only three years ago, but has witnessed the stock increase exponentially, almost testing his capacity to manage the numbers. Experts including ICARDA’s Dr. Tesfaye Mengistu took him through tips to ensure his enterprise remains resilient in all aspects including: breed selection, managing numbers, animal accommodation, animal health, animal nutrition, veterinary support, profitable waste management, and marketing, among others.

 

Consolidating research role

In a bid to consolidate the role of research in CBBP, the consortium team on August 27, 2025 visited BuZARDI and held talks with the Acting Director of Research, Dr. Moses Mwesigwa, at his offices in Bulindi, Hoima district. During the meeting, Dr. Aynalem Haile, urged the Director to take lead in supporting the monitoring of the genetic improvement initiative. “It is critical to emphasize the improvement of the local breeds through selection of desired traits, nutrition, promoting animal health and institutionalizing the best practices, with research on the lead,” Dr. Haile counselled. ASARECA provided a digital platform weighing scale, tag applicator and a Samsung data collection tablet to BuZARDI for monitoring progress to the breeding programme.

 

 

BuZARDI commits to following up CBBP

Dr. Mwesigwa who had earlier participated in all the CBBP training sessions committed to ensure that farmers develop a mindset of ownership of the initiative, which has just been introduced to them. “Our main role is to empower the farmers to become experts of their own,” he said. “From the science angle, NARO will support the farmers to introduce the right pastures and fodder to optimize nutrition.”

 

Dr. William Guma, BuZARDI researcher for small ruminants noted that the institute is supporting farmers to work in organized multistakeholder partnerships comprising farmers, input dealers, extension and veterinary services, financial institutions and goat traders by forming Associations that provide an entry point to CBBP. “BuZARDI supports the groups through provision of a healthy breeding and feeding environment including accommodation; providing requisite information on pasture management and making available fodder materials such as crop residues, and roughages from maize, and pulses to supplement the existing organically growing grasses and shrubs; storage of feeding materials; advisory services on convenient accommodation to reduce diseases; management of diseases and parasites; and technologies for management and utilization of residues and wastes.

 

 

Challenges and potential of the goat sector in Uganda

The goat industry in Uganda provides a lucrative opportunity for producers and other value chain actors to earn income and improve livelihoods. According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics, almost every three Ugandans have one goat. The current number of goats in Uganda is about 17 million and that of Lake Albert Crescent Zone, where Buliisa, Hoima, and Kibale are allocated, alone is 739,343 goats comprising of indigenous goats (699,709) and exotic goats (39,635) goats. Goat keeping has multiple benefits including: provision of excellent meat in small readily usable quantities; multiply faster; thrive under a wide range of climatic conditions, and have broader socio-cultural uses. However, despite this, the productivity of goats in Uganda is generally low due to poor breeds arising from injudicious breeding and limited application of technical knowledge and skills. The genetic improvement effort in Uganda ranges from crossbreeding to selective breeding which are faced by objective mismatch, high running costs, high mortality and inbreeding.

 

Scaling utilization of regional research public good

According to Ms. Julian Barungi, the Programme Officer for Policy, ASARECA, the training is a follow up activity to strengthen CBBPs for small ruminants in its member countries. “ASARECA under the auspices of its AICCRA project, organized a regional learning event in Bonga, Ethiopia in March 2025, facilitated by technical staff from ICARDA, ILRI and ASARECA Secretariat for small ruminant farmers and scientists from Uganda, Burundi and Kenya to enhance participants’ knowledge and skills in improved reproductive technologies, fodder production, rangeland management and small ruminant rearing as a business. Participants were expected to train additional farmers on CBBPs within their home countries after the learning event,” Ms. Barungi explains. “As a follow up to the regional learning event, ASARECA in partnership with NARO organized a training in Uganda to adapt the establishment of CBBPs for small ruminants especially goats in Uganda.

 

 

Linking CBBP to global CSA action

ILRI Senior Scientist, Dr. John Recha explained that the CBBP aligns with the AICCRA, CGIAR and World Bank desire of combating effects of climate change through increasing agricultural productivity and income, adapting and building resilience to climate change, and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through knowledge generation and sharing through development of climate-informed agricultural advisory services and decision-making tools; strengthening partnerships for delivery of climate-smart innovations in agriculture; and validating climate-smart agriculture innovations through piloting proven innovations.

 

Going forward

Participants at the training developed concrete action plans to guide the implementation and scaling of CBBPs within their communities. In the subsequent days, they are expected to engage in field visits to community goat flocks, accompanied by researchers, enumerators, and local partners. These visits will involve farmer consultations, community mobilization, selection of participating flocks, and the initiation of animal identification and baseline data collection. Throughout the training, facilitators will provide guidance on analyzing production systems, characterizing existing breeds, defining breeding objectives, designing appropriate breeding structures, and creating an enabling environment for successful adoption.