Recent Developments in Goat Farming and Perspectives for a Sustainable Production in Western Africa

The West African region has a great diversity of indigenous goat breeds that are well adapted to such environmental conditions. West African goat population was estimated to be around 150 million heads in 2014, representing 14.82% of the world goat population. Goats play an important role in the socio-economic, environmental and religious life of the farming communities in terms of income, payment of dowry and supplying food for the local population. The traditional keeping system based on natural rangeland use as feed resources and free roaming is the most common system in the regions. Although goat industries have significantly increased these last decades, they are subjected to a variety of factors limiting their development. For a sustainable development with the goals of meeting the increasing demand for goat products, a wide intensification of goat production policies should be implemented.