Indigenous African sheep genetic resources have been classified into two main groups, fat-tailed and thin-tailed sheep. The fat-tailed sheep are the most widely distributed, being found in a large part of North Africa (from Egypt to Algeria) and in Eastern and Southern Africa (from Eritrea to South Africa). The thin-tailed sheep are present mainly in Morocco, Sudan, and West Africa. African sheep were domesticated outside Africa. They share a common ancestry with European and Asian sheep. Archaeological information supports separate introductions and dispersion histories for the African thin-tailed and fat-tailed sheep. The first sheep entered Africa via the Isthmus of Suez and/or the southern Sinai Peninsula, between 7 500 and 7 000 BP. They were likely of the thin-tailed type. Fat-tailed sheep entered Africa through the Horn of Africa.
Mitochondrial DNA analysis supports a common maternal ancestral origin for all African sheep, while autosomal and Y chromosome DNA analysis indicates a distinct genetic history for African thin-tailed and sub-Saharan fat-tailed sheep. The main ancestral population of southern African fat-tailed sheep likely originated in East Africa.
Map of the Sahel countries
The Sahel from its original Arabic name means “flat land.” It includes a band of Africa indicating a floristic and climatic transition between the Sahara in the North and the Sudan savannah in the South in which rainfalls are important. Rainfalls from 200 mm in the North to 600 mm to the South are the limits of the Sahel zone in Africa. This area is characterised by a monomodal distribution of rainfalls that occurs randomly in 90 – 120 days and a long dry season of 8 – 9 months. This alternate of wet and dry periods rhythm undermines animal and plant productions and their modes of management.
The population growth increases fast in the Sahel. According to CILSS, there will be 100 million people in the region by 2020 and 200 million by 2050; this is almost four times the actual population. More than half of them, 141 million, will live in the three countries Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. Livestock remains one of the most important economic activities of the Sahel with a contribution of 30 – 40% of the agricultural GNP of the countries like Burkina Faso, Cap-Vert, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Soudan, and Chad. Besides this economic contribution, pastoral livestock is one of Sahel’s most important agricultural productions. The Sahelian countries have an important potential for meat production with livestock estimated in 2006 at 63 million cattle, 168 million small ruminants, and more than 6 million camels.
The Production Systems and Feed Resources of Sheep Production in the Sahel
The livestock of this region is primarily dependent on the availability of forage, which depends on climatic fluctuations, seasonal variations, and grazing intensity, as have been demonstrated by the severe droughts of the years 1970 and 1980. This livestock is based on natural grazing and some fallows. These droughts resulted in the loss of about 80% of the livestock in the area, which forced thousands of people to leave. In Mali, however, the number of small ruminants increased from 1990 to 2005 by 26% because of the succession of wet years, which allowed for a quick numerical reconstitution of livestock.
The Sahara-Sahel between 100 and 200 mm, the “typical Sahel” from 200 – 400 mm, and the Sahelo-Sudanian zone between 400 and 600 mm are the three Phyto-geographical subzones that make up the Sahelian zone. The following Table provides a summary of the region under study’s land area, livestock population, and natural resource availability. Livestock plays a crucial role in food security and livelihood plans in the West African Sahel because they fulfil a variety of sociocultural needs while also providing meat, milk, draught power, and manure for crop fields.
Information on the land area, livestock population and natural resources in West African Sahelian countries.
|
Livestock population in 2021 |
Natural resources in 2021 |
|||||||
|
Country |
Land,Area |
Percentage of Sahelian zone |
Cattle |
Goat |
Sheep |
Rangeland |
Tree covered area |
Shrub covered area |
|
x 1 000 km |
% |
Million Heads |
x 1 000 ha |
|||||
|
Burkina |
274 |
7 |
9.84 |
16.64 |
10.44 |
31.314 |
2.182 |
3.776 |
|
Mali |
1220 |
40 |
11.76 |
25.22 |
18.27 |
65.503 |
5.437 |
10.122 |
|
Mauritania |
1025 |
39 |
1.92 |
7.47 |
11.02 |
28.776 |
31 |
1.188 |
|
Niger |
1267 |
50 |
14.36 |
17.41 |
1275 |
41.054 |
1.037 |
3.135 |
|
Senekal |
193 |
27 |
3.63 |
6.05 |
7.13 |
17.757 |
5.302 |
7.796 |
Types and availability of feed resources in the West African Sahel:
The most common types of feed resources in West Africa include rangelands, crop residues, agro-industrial by-products, and browse plants. Common forage species for the countries and common challenges are summarised in the following Table.
Common types of feed resources in the Sahel.
|
Type of fodder |
Species and varieties |
Countries or regions |
Common problems or challenges |
|
Crop residues |
Cereal crop residues–millet [Pennisetum |
All Sahel |
Low quality, bulky and difficult |
|
Leguminous crop residues such as cowpea (Vigna |
All Sahel |
A rapid decline in quality due to |
|
|
Rangeland, |
False moneywort [Alysicarpus ovalifolius], rat’s |
Southern Sahel |
Low quality, high variability in |
|
Rangeland, grasses |
Panicum turgidum, Aristida sieberiana, lemongrass |
Northern Sahel |
Marked variation in quality and |
|
Browse species |
Gum acacia (Acacia senegal), red acacia (Acacia |
Burkina Faso |
Generally, low quality and |
|
Introduced forages |
Caribbean stylo [Stylosanthes hamata], Digitaria |
Mali, Burkina Faso |
Seed availability, the high price |
|
Fodder banks |
Jumbay [Lucaena leucocephala], white mulberry |
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger |
With the very high cost for the |
|
Agro‐industrial |
Cotton seed cake, bran of millet, sorghum, |
Toxicity, for example, due to |
The availability of different feed resources also varies over time. The following Figures shows the seasonal variation in the availability of different feed types in four representative locations in the West African Sahel.
Seasonal variation in the available feed resources in four representative areas of the Sahel. (a) Mahon, Burkina Faso, (b) Thiou, Burkina Faso, (c) Milli, Niger, and (d) Yakubawa, Nigeria. Availability in the y-axis is an average of the scores given by the respondents on the availability of different feed resources per month in the community. The rainfall score is an average of the scores given by the respondents on rainfall intensity where 0 = no rainfall and 5 = heavy rainfall.
In the Sahel, rangelands serve as the primary source of animal feed. The Sahel’s rangelands are made up of herbaceous plants, with annual species making up more than 80% of the population and a sporadic population of shrubs and trees. Within the Sahelian region, the species composition of rangelands varies along the agroecological gradient, with thorny shrubs and trees making up the rangelands in the northern part of the Sahel. The Sahel’s rangelands vary in the Sahel’s geography, topography, season, and climate in terms of their quality, availability, and biomass production.
This is related to the seasonal and geographic distribution of precipitation, with forages being more plentiful and nutritiously valuable during the rainy season and scarce and of lower quality during the dry season. Across the West African rainfall gradient, there is available biomass in the Sahelian herbage production of rangeland from 1.1 to 4 Mg DM ha1. Variations within the same site also result from topography, geomorphology, runoff water patterns, and plant species. During the growing season, the ratio of available soil water to the nutrient composition of the herbage produced is frequently inverse.
If enough forage was available to meet maintenance needs, steers in northern Niger at 320 mm of rainfall gained up to 80 kg of LW per animal during the brief rainy season and lost little weight during the dry season. Zones of Mali and Senegal allow a voluntary feed dry matter (DM) intake of 1.8 – 2.7 kg DM 100 kg-1 of LW for cattle, 1.7 – 3.2 kg DM 100 kg-1 of LW for sheep, and up to 6 kg DM 100 kg-1 However, the Sahel region has also reported significant local variation in herbage production due to variations in soil type and rainfall.
In the northern Sahel with 200 mm of rainfall, the annual mean herbage production ranges from 600 kg DM ha-1 to 2 400 kg DM ha-1 in the southern Sahel with 600 mm of rainfall. According to a report from the Nigerian Diffa administrative district (northern Sahel), annual herbage production varied between different sites within the same district, ranging from 305 to 936 kg DM ha1. Variations within a single site can also be attributed to topography, geomorphology, runoff water patterns, and plant species. During the growing season, the nutrient makeup of the produced herbage is frequently inversely proportional to the amount of soil water available. If there was enough forage available to meet maintenance needs, steers in northern Niger at 320 mm rainfall gained up to 80 kg of LW per animal during the brief rainy season and lost little weight.
Knowledge Gaps in Feed Resources in the West African Sahel
Without sufficient knowledge of the trends in supply and demand, feed scarcity is presented as a general issue. For instance, a recent analysis of the demand and supply for feed in Burkina Faso showed that the country had a feed surplus of up to 6 million Mg of DM, but that the Sahel region had a feed deficit of 2 million Mg of DM and three other regions had smaller deficits. Without this data, suitable long-term strategies for addressing feed supply issues and feeding difficulties cannot be developed and put into practice. To avoid making the incorrect assumption that there is an inadequate supply of feed based on the evidence of feed purchases at specific locations, information on trends in feed supply and demand is also necessary.
Livestock feed balance in tonne dry matter (TDM) at the regional level in Burkina Faso in 2019
Limited information on the efficacy of feed improvement technologies:
Regarding the preservation, storage, and processing of various feed resources to reduce problems with the spatial and temporal supply and demand for feed, the effectiveness and significance of technologies for feed quality improvement are not well understood. Because livestock production and the intended interventions are not market-oriented in most of the study regions, productivity indices are not well defined to assess the effects of interventions. Additionally, Niger and Burkina Faso have been found to have gaps in their knowledge and expertise regarding a variety of feed production, processing, quality assessment, and marketing-related topics.
Despite their significant involvement and contribution, for example in the feed sector, women’s roles in livestock production have been undervalued and greatly underreported. There is a lack of understanding and appreciation of gender issues in the supply of feed resources. When it comes to controlling and gaining access to the resources involved in the production of fodder and feed, women face numerous obstacles. These obstacles are caused by several cultural and socio-economic problems. Women’s ability to own livestock and make decisions about livestock production at the household level is restricted throughout the Sudano-Sahelian region due to culturally biased gender roles.
Because feed handling and improvement techniques require manual labour, which can be a constraint for women, women are frequently limited by the availability of such labour. Due to their heavy workloads or the fact that they need their husbands’ permission to train, access to training can also be a challenge.
Therefore, it is crucial to guarantee women’s access to extension services, information, credit, and technologies. Most feed intervention projects are also not closely related to the social and nutritional needs of households. Men’s increased earnings from livestock-related activities may not always translate to better nutrition for the household, whereas women typically place more importance on the welfare of the home. Finding these gaps will give project designers ideas for specific measures to ensure women’s participation.
Strengthening fodder market:
The fact that there are fodder markets that range from selling residues at farm gates to selling mixed concentrates at designated locations in rural and urban areas of the Sahel highlights the fact that crop residues are a tradable commodity with a value chain requiring collection from the field, transportation by middlemen, and trading by wholesalers and retailers.
Open-air crop residue marketing in West African countries
The value chain, however, continues to be weak with many untrained actors, and the market is still very far from being well organised. Therefore, institutional support is needed to organise actors in the forage value chain, establish mechanisms for information sharing, monitor and analyse feed prices, and strengthen stakeholders’ knowledge of forage processing and conservation.
Despite making a significant contribution to livestock production, the feed resource sector is largely ignored by policymakers and suffers from a lack of data and statistics. Despite having a surplus of these feeds in 2021, Burkina Faso has experienced significant shortages in their availability due to widespread exports of these feeds to Nigeria and Niger for higher prices. One of the main reasons scaling up livestock feed interventions fails or does not occur at the expected scale is the absence of a suitable framework.
To take advantage of the expanding opportunities presented to smallholder livestock producers by the rising demand for animal-source food in the region and low- and middle-income countries generally, effective, and coherent feed policies are essential. Therefore, policies about livestock must be developed through a participatory process that includes all significant players in the value chains of livestock and livestock feed, including resource-poor male and female smallholders and large commercial enterprises. To take advantage of the expanding opportunities presented to smallholder livestock producers by the rising demand for animal-source food in the region and low- and middle-income countries generally, effective, and coherent feed policies are essential. Therefore, policies relating to livestock should not be developed in a vacuum; rather, they should be developed through a participatory process that includes all significant actors in the value chains of livestock and livestock feed, including resource-poor male and female smallholders and large commercial enterprises.
Due to the multipurpose nature of livestock farming in the Sahel, farmers have historically used differentiated management, such as providing lactating and animals ready for sale with a higher nutrient feed supplement than unproductive and dry animals. Larger animals like lactating cows receive supplemental feeding that includes concentrates, hay, crop residues, and so on, while small ruminants, who can more effectively consume nutrient-rich foliage from browse-dominated rangelands, are typically not. Supplements are typically fed to productive animals, especially sheep, goats, and cows that are lactating or pregnant; animals that are being fattened for market; and young animals for growth. In the dry season, it is common to let non-productive animals lose weight; during the wet season, when feed resources, especially natural pastures, are typically plentiful, they gain it. In the Sahel, species can be distinguished by gender and ethnicity. Women typically favour small ruminants, whereas pastoral ethnic groups like the Peulh typically favour cattle as a sign of their economic status.
Species differentiation in the West African Sahel has also been driven in the past four decades by droughts, which have favoured the rearing of small ruminants more than cattle as an adaptation strategy to climate change. Consequently, the population of small ruminants has increased significantly in the Sahel and this trend is likely to continue with climate change.
Sahel-type of Sheep Breeds
The Fulani, Peul, Bali-Bali, Tuareg, and Gand Uinea Long-legged, are found primarily in the countries of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Chad. They are found north of the West African Dwarf. It is a drier region of west Africa. When compared to the West African Dwarf the main difference is that the Sahel-type sheep are taller, heavier and of poor mutton conformation and, rams do not have a throat ruff or mane. Mature ewes weigh over 35 kg. The Sahel-type are usually white, white, and brown, or white and black with lop ears. The males display a long twisting pattern to the horns and the females are usually polled. Taken from six studies, the average litter size was 1.12.
Sahel-type ram (left) and ewe (right)
Fulani Sheep:
Presently, there is various composition of this breed group depending on the line of crossing. However, the common ones are, 50% Yankasa and 50% Balami in the F1 generation, decreasing 25% Yankasa and 25% Djallonke; 25% Balami and 25% Djallonke in the F2 generation of which the re-crosses can further be improved phenotypically and genotypically by backcrossing. These crosses have exhibited heterosis as there has been improvement in certain traits when compared to the individual parent breed alone.
Fulani sheep breed
Peul-Peul Sheep:
Farmers appreciate more Peul-Peul sheep because of their adaptation to mobility and drought in semi-arid zone conditions aggravated by rainfall decrease. Peul-Peul sheep is widely reared in Ferlo in the extensive system characterised by the high mobility of animals. Peul-Peul sheep is an animal with a small format compared to other local Sahelian breeds reared in Senegal such as Touabire and Waralé. Despite this, Peul-Peul sheep is prised by farmers because of its hardiness and adaptation to walking and drought.
Peul-Peul Sheep
Bali-Bali Sheep:
The remarkable Bali-Bali is a hair sheep native to the Mali and Niger boundary and is highly desired for breeding stock across Western Africa. It has a noble appearance due to its distinctive foreheads, lopping ears, elegant legs, and body structure. The long straight tail also differentiates it from fat-tailed sheep. Rams display a long twisting pattern to the horns and the females are usually polled (naturally hornless). They carry their head high as if conscious that they are highly valued. The thin, leggy body structure dissipates body heat more easily in desert climates than in heavy, stocky breeds.
Bali-Bali sheep
Tuareg Sheep:
The sheep of the Imuhar (Tuareg) nomads are short-haired and long-legged. They have long noses, long tails and long, wide and hanging ears. The coat colours differ between white, brown, and black. Some animals are bi-coloured. The rams have bent horns.
A Tuareg sheep
Guinea Long-Legged Sheep:
The Guinea-long-legged is found mainly in the arid and semi-arid zones of the Sahel. They are the most ancient type of sheep on the continent and their convex nose, pendulous ears and exceptionally long legs closely resemble the sheep of ancient Egypt.
A Guinea long-legged ram