3.2.1 Background

Sheep meat consumption in the Middle East is one of the highest in the world; however, local production is far below the needs. Import of live animals mainly from Australia and New Zealand cannot overcome the shortage, mainly because the consumers traditionally prefer meat of the local breeds, even if they have to pay a higher price. Intensification of sheep production by adoption of modern management tools and introduction of improved genotypes is needed to assure increase in local production of sheep meat.

The small ruminant (SR) population of the region (4 countries) is around 11 million heads (table 1). The self-sufficiency of meat production ranges between 30% to 95%. Productivity of SR in the region is low, however the genetic potential is high. For example, the Israeli Awassi produce more than 500 kg/year of milk (Table 2) compared to the local type who produces only 80-100 kg/year. Another problem is that most of the animals in the region (85% in Egypt and PA) are kept in small sized herds (table 3) which makes it difficult to reach them. Most farmers in the region lack the modern management methods, and there is much to be done to improve this. The aim of this work is to improve knowledge and to introduce advanced technologies to the professionals in each country – researchers , extension specialists, experimental stations, and some of the commercial farms, in order to provide a different model to follow.

The total number of sheep in Jordan is 2.3 million, mainly the Awassi breed that is very common in the Middle East. Although the Awassi sheep and it's cross breeds possess a high potential for milk and meat production, their performance in Jordan is far from exploiting this potential. There are a number of reasons for the low productivity of sheep in Jordan, such as poor nutrition, lack of disease control, lack of breeding programs. Another problem is lack of skills and knowledge about the new technologies by farmers. Jordan has a severe deficit in feed stuff production and an overgrazing problem. The semi-intensive is the main breeding system in Jordan.To fill the gap of deficiency in feed stuff production, government imports about 1 million ton/year. One way to face these problems are to train extension people in modern management to be able to transfer these technologies to farmers in order to improve their flocks' productivity.

The total number of sheep and goats in the Palestine Authority area amounts to nearly 1 million. Sheep and goat meat consumption in the PA is very high and there is a gap between the production and the consumption. In order to meet the demand it is necessary to increase production of meat and milk of the local sheep and goat breeds. Import of meat or live animals from abroad does not cover the need because traditionally consumers prefer the local meat. Because of high cost of fodder, shortage of range land and shortage of by-products it is a high priority to improve the productivity of SR in the PA. There are two main breeding systems in the PA; 60% are Bedouin (semi-intensive system) and 40% are on villages (intensive system).

The small ruminant population in Israel is composed of about 200,000 SR in the Bedouin (semi-intensive) system and 150,000 heads in intensive herds, held mainly indoors, with no grazing system. There are about 50,000 heads of dairy small ruminants, which are kept indoors in a very intensive system, producing high-level milk yield. A computer-managing program has been developed in the last few years, and around 50 herds have already purchased it, and are using it. At present there is a plan to develop a central data processing and progeny test in order to increase the genetic value of the animals.

The small ruminants population in Egypt is around 4.5 millions heads each of sheep and goats. Most (85%) of them are owned at an average number of five heads per farmer. Some flocks are larger than 500 heads, but they are scarce, while the common, so called big flock's range from 30 to 120 heads. In the old agricultural lands, the low cost per SR unit makes it easily obtained by a wide sector of farmers who have a limited income, and it is not presently feasible to increase these flocks. In the new reclaimed lands, more fodder is available, facilitating larger SR production. The low productivity of SR does not allow a profit margin to compensate for extra feed supplementation. Raising the productivity of SR could help to protect SR producers of loosing their interest in raising animals, if not to encourage them to increase numbers owned. Small ruminants, with their essential role in agriculture, are important to the welfare of the agricultural process in Egypt.

Table 1: Small ruminants' production in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Authorities and Denmark

Table 2: Distribution of flock sizes and number of sheep farmers in the different countries.

Table 3: Production/reproduction performances under commercial conditions(sheep/goat breeds)

The improvement of the low production performance of especially Egyptian sheep is a complex task and the planned co-operation using better performing Israeli techniques could at least substantially address an improved selection process and thus the genetic material for higher yielding reproduction methods. However, also complementary institutional arrangements would have to be introduced.

5.2.2 Objectives

Within the framework of the overall objectives of this programme to increase the co-operation in the region and to improve the utilisation of the agricultural resource base, the specific development of this programme component is the achievement of productivity increases in sheep and goat productivity (milk and meat).

The immediate objectives of the programme have been formulated to achieve

• improved flock and farm management
• increasing the capabilities of target groups, i.e. extension officers, experimental station managers and farmers.
• the transfer of the knowledge between regional sheep and goat experts