Yumbe’s SACCO Saves Fortunes in Hybrid South African Goats

Male Boer Goat introduced at Umucha Mixed Farm in Jomorogo Parish,

Yumbe District. (photo by Robert Mone)

By Robert Mone

Yumbe District

In the semi-arid conditions of Yumbe district, yields of four major staple food crops - rice, cassava, Maize and Groundnuts, continue to decline year-on-year since 2021.  

The situation is worrying for many residents deriving their livelihoods from their value chain. For a moment, no solution seemed in sight until the concept of breeding improved goats was fronted by Climate Smart Job as a viable alternative to the predicament in 2023.

Yai Mixed farm in Kululu Sub County quickly integrated the method in the traditional crop cultivation, unlocking diverse sources of protein and income.

Fatuma Ijodri, a 55-year-old mother, was one of the founder members of Yai Mixed Farm. Ijodri borrowed money from a village saving and loan association and acquired the first set of her goats.

Her Five local goats presented with small body weights with low appetite. Diseases were common among them. Reproduction was also low due to kids’ mortality and premature abortions.  

Ijodri’s backyard soon started transforming into a graveyard for sick goats, amidst worsening dry spell. Grazing grass looked like pale-dry dust on the soil, hard and scanty for her goats to browse just enough for the night. The trend went on for up to two years before Climate Smart Jobs introduced the concept of improving the quality of the goats.

Indigenous Strength, Better Breeds

In Yumbe district, the local goats have long been valued by livestock farmers for their hardiness and ability to survive in harsh environments where larger livestock often struggle. This is why Yai Mixed Farm is blending these natural advantages with modern science to further produce animals that grow faster, resist diseases more effectively, and deliver higher yields of meat one goat at a time while making better use of the available feed.

This is at the heart of Climate Smart Jobs’ Improved Goats Breeding Program being implemented in the area Kulacha village, Komgbe Parish in Kululu Sub County where 30 village saving and loans Association members are saving goats rather than the traditional money. Every member buy and bring his or her goats to the group for cross breeding. Grazing the animals is done on rotational basis on schedule. 

Ijodri, a resident in the area joined the group with just Five goats of a share capital in 2021. She is one of eight goats’ farmers comprising 5-males and 3-female. One of the members is a male refugee who fled fighting in South Sudan.

From the initial 20 local goats, the group now has 150 goats, with a handful of Bucks from the South African original. The bucks were introduced to the group by the Climate Smart Jobs, a transformative Agribusiness Initiative in Northern Uganda and the West Nile sub region.

They were imported to improve the quality of the small bodied goats through cross breeding. It is believed the strategy will help Kululu communities strengthen their food security, increase household incomes, and build resilience against climate-related shocks; such as prolonged dry spell, erratic rainfall and shrinking grazing land amongst others.

Hybrid Vigor

Under the project, the local goats are allowed to mate with the Boer goats to produce climate resilient offspring capable of growing faster, possessing high fertility, disease resistance, better body size, and ability to tolerate heat or drought.

Zainab Chandiru is an 80-year-old resident of Pitia village and member of Yai mixed farm.

“The vision of introducing the Boers goats in the farm is to improve the breed of the goats, for the offsprings to fetch higher income in the future,” Chandiru stated.

The group learned during their training that an improved offspring will sell for more than 300,000 Uganda shillings, compared to the biggest matured Mubende Savanah goats’ 200,000 Uganda shillings only.

With just one Boer Buck, 50 goats can be effectively served to obtain offsprings which may grow faster, have stronger immune systems, reproduce more efficiently, or survive better under challenging environmental conditions.

Yai mixed farm Limited formerly called Kulacha Farm sits on 1000-acres of land where about 500-acres is dedicated for block farms operated by humanitarian organizations in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement for Crop cultivation for feeding refugees. The rest is grazing land for rearing goats, sheep, cattle and Poultry, with sections for Rice growing as well.

The Climate Smart Jobs’ project constructed expansive goats’ shelters, before it delivered the male Boer bucks. In the short term, the farmers are earning from exotic chickens also supplied by the project. The goal is for the farmers to earn income and effectively treat or care for the goats.

Local Goats at Yai Mixed Farm in Kulacha Village, Kululu Sub Sounty-Yumbe District. (Photo by Robert Mone)

Resilient Communities

Up to six farmer groups located in different ecosystems have received bucks under the project in April this year. The target is for them to utilize the two Boer -bucks each of them received in mating 50-female local goats over the next five years, when a pure 100 percent Boer Offspring will eventually result.

The farms include Omucha Farm Enterprise in Yoyo Parish, Dezo, Alibamviti mixed farm, Salamu joint farm and Lodenga farm all in Komgbe parish in Kululu Sub County that houses Zone three of Bidibidi Refugee Settlement in Yumbe district.

Others are Panyimur farm in Panyimur Town Council Pakwach district and Jingili farm at Inde Town council in Madi-Okollo District.

Taban Yasir, the program officer at Umucha Mixed Farm Company said, “the start was not easy with just 05-goats in 2024. By 2025, we acquired more to reach 20 goats the following year. Right now, we have 56 goats, which paved way for the arrival of the Boers.”

According to Yasir, the plan is to develop an agreement so that non-members can benefit from the cross-breeding initiative so that other refugee farmers in part of Zone Three and Zone four of Bidibidi Refugee Settlement can as well improve their breeds and quality.

“Since the bucks were brought to our farm, so far 4-farmers neighbouring our farm have approached us so that we cross-breed their goats, but we are still working on a document so that we also benefit from the business including possibilities of farmers paying cash or in-kind where they give us a goat to get the service of cross-breeding with the local female goats” Taban explained.

Under the project, farmers who adopt improved breeding practices are highly encouraged to maintain proper housing, vaccination schedules, balanced feeding, clean water supplies, and accurate breeding records. These management practices ensure that genetic improvements translate into higher productivity and healthier herds for the communities.

Scaling Up

Government services and Institutions, development partners, and farmer organizations are accelerating livestock breeding by investing in breeding centres, expanding artificial insemination services where appropriate, strengthening extension services, and improving farmers' access to affordable veterinary care and climate-smart livestock technologies.

This is the new pathway to developing community resilience to climate Change around Bidibidi Refugee settlement in Yumbe district where refugees and the host communities are supported in terms of livelihood intervention side by side.

The Office of the Prime Minister recently rolled out what is known as “the inclusive 70-30 agenda" in the settlement. It means for every 100 people supported in the area, 30 should be from the host community while the 70 are from the refugee’s community due to their high level of vulnerability to Climate Change and conflict shocks.

Faruk Buran is the community-based facilitator under climate smart Jobs. He says, “the groups were informal and involved in different enterprises, but Climate Smart Jobs supported the formalization of their businesses including enterprise registration by Uganda Registration Services Bureau and the office of the community Development Officer at Sub County levels.”

The dominant enterprises were rice and sorghum. Some were given local and Savanah goats by Caritas Arua diocese, before climate Smart Jobs joined the intervention with each farmer group enterprise supported in-kind support.

The project is not without challenges. According to Buran, when the project was first introduced, many local communities perceived it with a lot of negativities with others linking the project to an attempt to grab land by the CSJ team, others turned it into a political tool forcing many farmers to withdraw their memberships.

“The original plan for the project was to have 15-people per group, but some group members left due to wrong information circulated by those who did not understand the real idea of the project, but now they are trying to come back and continue since they are seeing promising outcome,” Buran said.

The other is the declining availability of water on the farm driven by erratic rainfall. In Yai Mixed Farm, farmers draw water from about two Kilometres away for their goats. They plan to install Solar irrigation technology to pump water from underground.

In Yumbe district, goats is a commercial enterprise primarily for sale, diet as well as cultural purpose including marriage, performing traditional ceremonies and food during celebrations.

National Outlook

As climate change intensifies across Uganda, building resilient livestock systems is becoming increasingly important. Improved goat breeding offers a practical, affordable, and sustainable pathway for adapting to changing environmental conditions while supporting rural livelihoods.

For many farming families, the future may not depend on owning larger herds, but on raising better animals - goats that can withstand climate pressures, produce more with fewer resources, and help secure a more resilient future.

According to the 2021 National Livestock census, out of 3,306,527 households with goats coutrywide, Westnile alone had 354,709 households keeping goats.

The report also indicated that Yumbe district had 20,530 goats, 3rd in the Westnile region after Arua that had 28,711, then Maracha that had 21,093 goats with Obongi trailing with 2,602 goats.

In terms of goat’s population by breed, Westnile had 1,994,810 goats of which 131,151 were Mubende breed, Small East African goats were 1,849,250, Kigezi breed were 7,052 and 7,356 were exotic breed (Savana and Boers)

Amaku Mansur, Assistant Animal Husbandry officer for Yumbe district attached to Midigo Town council, said the district is promoting goats’ productivity improvement through cross breeding local goats with the improved goats like Boer and Savannah spices to improve on quality and marketability of the animals.

“If you see, our local goats are resistant to diseases and adapt to our climatic conditions very well, but they are small and grow slowly compared to other breeds. Unlike the improved breed that grows faster, high weight with high marketability returns” Amaku said.

“Right now, we are introducing the male improved goats to fertilize our locals so that we have more improved breeds from 50% improved until we achieve 100% pure breeds, " said Amaku. Under the community goats breeding project, we have distributed 2-improved male improved goat seeds to farmers in all the sub counties to change the genetical characteristics of our local breads like improved weight, adaptability to environment, disease resistant and general physical appearance” Amaku explained

Amaku acknowledged contributions of Various Partners supporting goats breeding projects including Samaritan Purse that established pasture gardens in Kochi and Ariwa Sub counties to feed livestock during the dry season.

Goats’ famers in Yumbe district have been exporting goat’s product to Neighbouring South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo in addition to the local markets in Westnile, Acholi and Bunyoro Sub regions.

Yumbe district is currently profiling goats’ farmers to establish the number and breed of goats the district has as a component of livestock development program.

According to the National Livestock Census of 2021, the total goat population in Uganda increased by 39.2% to 17.4 million goats in 2021 from 12.4 million goats reported in 2008.

The report also showed that the Indigenous goats constituted 97.2% of the total goat population, while exotic/cross constituted 2.8%.

Western region had the highest goat population of 4.6 million, contributing 26.3% to the national herd size, followed by the Northern region with 4.1 million, contributing 23.4%.

According to Sub-regional analysis, Karamoja had the highest number of goats up to 2.6 million followed by West Nile with 1.99 million goats and Ankole with about 1.98 million goats and least number of goats were reported in Bukedi with 508,000 goats.