Determinants of goat rearing: a case of Nakaseke District

Abstract

In Uganda today, goat rearing has been undertaken mostly by small-scale farmers mostly back-yard raisers. Despite the tremendous expansion of the commercial goat farming in Uganda be-cause of the high profits it has in the last three decades, there still lacks sufficient empirical studies that provide better understanding of the determinants of goat rearing by rural household. The aim of this study, therefore, was to assess the determinants of goat rearing in Uganda. The study was cross-sectional based on primary quantitative data collected using structured and semi-structured questionnaires on 100 goat rearing household heads in Nakaseke District. The analysis was done using multiple linear regression on demographic, socio-economic and technical determinants. The results indicated that majority of the household heads (73.47%) kept local breeds of goats. The number of goats kept by household heads who raised local breeds of goats was significantly different from the number of goats kept by household heads who kept exotic breeds of goats (p-value = 0.000). Household heads that kept local breeds of goats had 12.8169 more goats than those who kept exotic breeds on average. The study, therefore, recommends increased rearing of exotic breeds of goat, provision of education to the household farmers and ensuring increased access to agricultural information through provision of free radios to the household heads as means to increase the number of goats reared.