Raising small ruminants is a vital source of income for many rural women. In the context of the fight against poverty, the quest for food security and resilience to the effects of climate change, the introduction of more efficient breeds appears to be a priority for creating income-generating activities and improving the incomes of vulnerable women through more productive and sustainable goat farming.
With technical support from the Institut Togolais de Recherche Agronomique (ITRA), the FSRP Togo has launched the pilot extension of the Maradi red goat in twelve (12) localities spread across the country's six agro-ecological regions, with the aim of improving the incomes of vulnerable women by breeding the Maradi goat, nicknamed "the poor man's dairy cow" because of its high milk production.
Originating in the Maradi department of Niger, this remarkably robust breed of goat has a number of assets, including its great hardiness and its ability to produce milk rich in vitamin A. Thanks to these assets, the Maradi red goat has proved to be the mainstay of economic development for rural households.
This FSRP initiative to introduce prolific breeds into livestock production systems is based on a rigorous methodology, as explained by Dr DJABA Atouga, head of the goat and sheep programme at the ITRA agricultural research centre in Kolokopé: The Maradi red goats you see arrived at the centre on 9 October 2024 and underwent a two-month quarantine period before being mated. To ensure that the organised matings were successful, we observed a further period of around four months to see the first signs, including udder development. Following these appearances, we proceeded to distribute the goats to vulnerable women identified in the country's six agricultural regions. Each woman received at least two (2) pregnant goats and a suitable feeding kit.
After just a few days of providing pregnant goats, goat kids have been born in some places. This is the case of Mrs Kossiwa Yao, a beneficiary based in Langabou, who describes her experience with the animals: "These goats are all I have today and I look after them as if they were my own children. As soon as they were born, they gave birth to a vigorous male kid within a week. Even though she is nursing the kid well, she still has a lot of milk in her udders. I'm planning to extract some of it to make cheese and sell at the market.
Through this action, the FSRP Togo is laying the foundations for structural improvement in the goat sector, while placing rural women at the heart of the agricultural development dynamic. This initial pilot phase paves the way for a gradual extension, based on concrete results, in favour of more resilient, inclusive and economically viable family farming.
ICAT's technical services provide regular veterinary and technical monitoring of these animals for the twelve women who have each received at least two (02) pregnant goats in the country's six agricultural regions.
