Alaa Hammo^*(1)

(1) Directorate of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection in Damascus. Damascus, Syria

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Alaa Hammo. E –mail: alaasuliman@outlook.com)

Received:23/11/2021          Accepted:30/12/2021

Abstract: 

Sheep production is one of the most profitable agricultural investments. And it is a complementary activity to plant production, which the rearers depend on as a main source of income, or as a secondary source besides plant production, to meet the family’s needs of meat, milk and its derivatives, and to sell surplus production. Accordingly, the study mainly aimed at studying some social and economic characteristics, and analyzing and describing the sheep production system in Al-Hasakah Governorate. The sample size reached 313 rearers, who were selected by a simple random sampling method, from the administrative regions of Al-Hasakah Governorate. Initial data were collected for the medians of the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 seasons according to a questionnaire prepared for this purpose. The results showed that 92% of rearers within the economic age, and illiteracy among them increased by 45.2%, and the size of their families ranged between 3-13 members, in addition to an important role for women in the production system and the integration between agricultural and animal activity, and that 25.5% of rearers under the category of their holdings are within the category (>10-14) hectares, while 51.56% of the rearers whose area planted with forage crops falls within the category (>4- 8) hectares, 52.32% of the rearers whose holding of sheep fall into the category (less than 19) sheep head, that 91.6% of the rearers renew their herds, and that the source of this renewal is to keep the newborns, and that 98.6% of the rearers follow the method of collective grazing, that 89.17% of the rearers have good knowledge of health and disease aspects, and that the main purpose of production in the study area is self-sufficiency marketing surplus. The study recommends allocating sufficient areas for the cultivation of fodder crops to secure the fodder need, and moving from subsistence production to commercial industrial production by increasing the size of the herd on an annual and gradual basis.

Keywords : Production and Marketing System, Sheep Raiser, Socioeconomic status, Rearing practices.

Full paper in Arabic: pdf