Socio-Economic and technical Characteristics of Poulfouli sheep rearing in the Sudano-sahelian region of Cameroon

The socio-economic and technical characteristics of Poulfouli sheep rearing was carried out in 103 farms in soudano-sahelian region of Cameroon especially in Mayo louti and Benoue departments. The main results indicate that: Socioeconomically, Poulfouli sheep rearing is a married male activity who are more than 60 years old and have 10 to 15 dependent children (89.3%). Few of them are especially Muslims (91. 3%); while 68% are illiterate but 25.2% have more than 20 years of experience in animal rearing. The majority of the farmers (80.6%) use family labour. They raise animal mostly for religious and /or social ceremonies (53. 4%), but it contributes 35% to household annual income. Farmers invest very little on animals and feeding is mainly on pasture. Complementary diet is provided by 94.2% with 74.2 and 20% of them using agricultural wastes and concentrated respectively. Zootechnically, herd are made especially of Poulfouli sheep, but we also find Uda sheep 42.7% of whom house animal in the clay enclosures. The main diseases are diarrhea (80%) and respiratory complications (70%). The main constraints as indicated by 96, 3 and 1% of farmers are mortality, lack of pasture and theft respectively. Respectives to their perspectives, farmers would like to increase the herd, access easily to pharmaceutical products, build separate houses for animals, and improve the pasture (80%).
Keywords: Poulfouli sheep. Socio-Economic and technical characteristics. Sudano-Sahelian zone of Cameroon.