Swine Production in Ethiopia: I. Socio-economic Characteristics of Producers and Motivational Drivers

The study was conducted to characterize the socio-economic features and motivational drivers of swine producers in Ethiopia. A total of 66 swine farms were selected in six major towns to collect quantitative and qualitative data on socio-economic characteristics of swine production in the country. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select sampling areas and respondents. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect the data using person to person interview. Data were analyzed using several statistical procedures of SAS and SPSS. According to the results, the majority (84.8%) of Ethiopian swine producers were Orthodox. They were between 36.5 to 42.3 years old. Almost all of them (98.4%) could read and write. About 48.4 and 21% of the respondents attended high school to college  and university to above, respectively. They hold small agricultural land ranged between 0.35 - 2.3 ha. The mean and SE of herd size in small, medium and large scales of production were 21.3 + 2.0, 82.2 + 7.2, and 630 + 174 pigs, respectively. Although all the interviewed respondents were producing pigs by the time of interview, the importance of swine as compared to other livestock production at household level was low and this was reported by (56.5%) of the respondents. Except religion, independent variables such as age of the respondents, land size, income level, and education status were not associated (P>0.05) with importance of pigs at household level. However, religion was significantly associated (P