The Importance Of Agriculture In Ethiopia

Agriculture leads the economies of developing countries like Ethiopia and it is the fastest growing agricultural sector in the countries (3.77% for livestock vs. 2.71% for crops in last decade (Röös et al., 2016). By the year 2005 consumers in developing countries were consumed 87% more meat and 75% more milk making livestock production the largest share of the value of global agricultural output (Kong and Fao, 2005). Livestock in the country is important and integral component of agriculture and the back bone of the economy. Ethiopia 's livestock population, the largest in Africa, has considerable contribution to the national economy and the livelihood of the people (Mithal et al., 2013) . Livestock production in Ethiopia contributes up to 80% of the farmers ' income. the number of livestock population in Ethiopia are approximately 50.8 million head of cattle, 25.9 million sheep, 21.9 million goats, 0.8 million camels, 39.6 million chickens, 1.8 million horses, 0.4 million mules, 5.6 million donkeys and an estimated 10 million bee colonies, out of which about 7.5 million are confined in hives and the remaining exist in the forest and crevices(Kasa et al., 2015).

Among livestock species, sheep and goats are highly adaptable to a broad range of environments and are closely linked to the social and cultural life of resource poor farmers, serve as a living bank for many farmers (Albenzio et al., 2016). Small ruminants are the major economically important livestock in