Worancha ወራንቻ

Assessment of Production and Marketing System of Goats In Dale District, Sidama Zone Endeshaw Assefa M.Sc Thesis In Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Animal Production Submitted to The School of Graduate Studies Department of Animal Production and Range Sciences AWASSA COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE UNIVERSITY OF HAWASSA AWASSA, ETHIOPIA June 2007Awassa Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude and heartfelt thanks to my advisor, Dr Girma Abebe, for his invaluable comments, supports and follow up from the preparation of the proposal up to the end of the research work. His careful follow up and guidance through out the study period has contributed a lot to cover and complete timely the wider area coverage of the study site. I also extend my sincere thanks to my co-advisor, Dr Yosef T/ Georgis, for his support in providing valuable comments through out the study period and his important guidance during data an

Sheep fateening, Sidama, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, Ethiopia Livestock and irrigation value chains for Ethiopian smallholders (LIVES) project baseline survey, Sidama, Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Kettema Yilma). http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/8242922513/in/photostream/

Farmer intercropping cabbage and Enset, Sidama, Ethiopia Livestock and irrigation value chains for Ethiopian smallholders (LIVES) project baseline survey, Sidama, Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Kettema Yilma). http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/8242931437/in/photostream/

Poultry for smallholder women, Sidama Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, Ethiopia Livestock and irrigation value chains for Ethiopian smallholders (LIVES) project baseline survey, Sidama, Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Kettema Yilma). http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/8242923977/in/photostream/lightbox/

It is a struggle to feed a growing family on land that is subject to droughts and soil erosion. But for Ethiopian smallholder farmers like Abebe Moliso, that's exactly the challenge that life has given them. A land management programme called MERET is helping them deal with it. AWASSA-Abebe Moliso, a farmer living in a small village near the southern Ethiopian town of Awassa, still remembers the days before he was introduced to a joint conservation and water harvesting project known as MERET, or the Managing Environmental Resources to Enable Transitions to more sustainable livelihoods programme, which is supported by the Ethiopian government and WFP. "Before MERET, my land was very weak," Abebe says. "It was too rocky and I had trouble growing." With his wife, Tsehaynesh Desalegn, and eight children to feed, coaxing and nurturing a healthy harvest from the soil around his home is a matter of survival for Abebe. Rehabilitating land Land degradation