Regresar

Farmers’ perceptions towards production of Ojinegra lamb meat, an autochthonous sheep breed

Abstract:

Over the last two decades, in Spain there has been a growing interest in recovering and maintaining autochthonous livestock breeds. This has partly occurred because these breeds are considered essential to coping with changing socio-economic and environmental conditions. The aim of the present work is to analyze the perceptions of the farmers toward the production lamb meat from an autochthonous livestock breed in Spain. In addition, were explored the interrelationships between these perceptions and characteristics of farms as well as the farmers’ objectives. The information used was obtained from a sample of 34 lamb meat producers of an autochthone sheep breed originally from northeastern Spain. The statistical analysis performed was descriptive analysis, factor analysis and cluster analysis. The results show that breeders greatly value the positive effects of sheep breeding on rural development, which generate employment in disadvantaged areas. The cluster analysis reveals the existence of two groups of farmers with different perceptions. Moreover, results indicate that the positive perceptions of producers toward autochthonous breeds are closely related to the farmers’ objectives. Hence, public and private organization initiatives that seek to promote the development of a particular breed should account for livestock farm heterogeneity.