Analysis of preferences in sheep breeds of households in Niger Oriental

Abstract Eastern Niger is a pastoral area par excellence. The growing insecurity in this area a has caused many households to lose their livestock. It is important to know the preferences in sheep breed of breeders before any restocking operation. For this, 576 heads of household breeders from 6 municipalities of Diffa were randomly interviewed. The latter prefer the Bali-bali breeds, the number of which varies from 14 to 39 breeders, then comes the Balami (8 and 36) and Oudah (6 and 21) breeds. The other breeds (Sudanese, Ara-ara, others) are weakly appreciated. Economic reasons mainly justify the choice of breeds, in an area where all breeds are already adapted to the ecological conditions of the environment. The economy makes it possible to ensure the need for basic necessities and also to cover the socio-religious need. No significant difference was found between the preferences of the Bali-bali and Balami breed with p-value varying from 0.0607 to 0.444 in all the municipalities. The same is true between Oudah and Sudanese in N’Guigmi. However, there were differences very significant between Ara-ara with Sudanese and Oudah (p value varying from 0.0015 and 0.0002). Very highly significant differences were observed between Ara-ara with Bali-bali and Balami with p-value = 0.0000. It should be noted that households in the municipalities of Diffa prefer the Bali-bali and Balami breeds, because of its socio-economic importance. Keywords: Sheep, breed, choice, Diffa, Niger