GOAT BREEDING IN LOW INPUT PRODUCTION SYSTEMS: INTERGRATING VALUES AND MODERN BREEDING TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING INSTRINSIC ROBUSTNESS

Abstract

Low input production systems operate on long term values of supporting stable livestock production through efficient and sustainable combination of various production resources to achieve the desired production objectives. Strategies of goat breeding in low-input systems that emphasize on more robustness are a challenge now more than ever, owing to global environmental changes. These changes have exacerbated environmental heterogeneity, low feed availability and varied stresses that these systems are exposed to due to drastic variation in weather conditions, epidemic pressures, and feed availability, among others. Therefore to improve robustness, breeding should aim at increasing versatility of the goats to the changing environments. Characteristics of goats that enhance robustness are influenced by a range of biological mechanisms which are not exhaustively explored to be able to optimise breeding programs for low- input systems. The targeted quantitative traits are complex and influenced by many genes as well as the environment. Performance in low-input goat production systems is influenced by largely varying environmental conditions. Therefore, G x E interaction is envisaged. Most modern breeding technologies that can be used to improve intrinsic robustness have received little utility in low input production systems. For instance genomic selection, a high through put tool for genetic improvement of complex traits and reproductive technologies that facilitate rapid dissemination of superior genetics have achieved low utility in these systems. While these technologies may not have out rightly been outlawed, values espoused in low input production systems limit their use. It is therefore important that the concept of system values is discussed in view of incorporating modern technologies of animal breeding in these systems