INTL J TROP DRYLANDS Volume 5, Number 1, June 2021 E-ISSN: 2775-6130 Pages: 5-11 DOI: 10.13057/tropdrylands/t050102 Characterization of the production system and breeding practices of sheep producers in Tahtay Maychew District, Northern Ethiopia AWOKE MELAK 1,♥ , ABEBE HAILU 1 , ABRAHAM ASSEFA 1 , TESFALEM ASEGED 1 , SEBLE SINKIE 1 , SEMERE TSION 2 1 Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Tel.: +2519-2128-2957, ♥ email: awoke.melak@yahoo.co.uk 2 Tahtay Maychew District Agricultural Burea, Ethiopia Manuscript received: 1 January 2020. Revision accepted: xxx June 2021. Abstract. Melak A, Hailu A, Assefa A, Aseged T, Sinkie S, Tsion S. 2021. Characterization of the production system and breeding practices of sheep producers in Tahtay Maychew District, Northern Ethiopia. Intl J Trop Drylands 5: 5-11. Sheep rearing plays an important role in the livelihoods of rural people in Ethiopia, yet limited information is available regarding the management system of the sheep. The study was conducted in Tahtay Maychew district of the central zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. The objective of the study was to understand the sheep production system, the breeding practices, selection criteria, and sheep production constraints to identify sheep farming practices about future production strategies in the study area. A total of 70 households from 2 kebeles (lower administrative structure) were selected purposively based on sheep population and production potential and accessibility. Data was collected through semi-structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, and key informants. An index was calculated to provide an overall ranking of the purpose of keeping sheep, culling rams and ewe, according to the formula: Index = Σ of [3 for rank 1 + 2 for rank 2 + 1 for rank 3]. It is concluded that both female and male sheep are maintained mainly for income generation followed by breeding. A variable that was given a higher priority in selecting breeding males and females was body size. Disease, feed shortage, lack of grazing, and predators are the major constraints of sheep production mentioned in the study area. Therefore, addressing these constraints is important to design a successful genetic improvement scheme in the area for sheep. Keywords: Production systems, selection criteria, Tahtay Maychew INTRODUCTION It is believed that the livestock population in Ethiopia is the largest in Africa (Lijalem and Zeru 2016). Livestock is an important source of income for the agricultural community and is also one of Ethiopia’s major sources of foreign currency through the exportation of live animals, meat, and skin (Lema 2015). The ongoing climate change is predicted to affect livestock sector in the country due to the long dry period and erratic rainfall, yet this issue has been only modestly considered (Niemi and Ahlstedt 2014). To overcome such problem, there is a need to conserve and sustainably use available local animal genetic resources which can adapt to the climatic condition. Conservation and sustainable utilization of local AnGR however requires information on their morphology and production system (Osei-Amponsah et al. 2017). The huge livestock resources and diversified genetic pools in Ethiopia are adaptive to different agro-ecologies. Farm animals are raised across the highland, midland, and lowland areas of the country and they are integral parts of Ethiopia's agricultural system. Similar to livestock production in most developing countries, livestock management in Ethiopia is mostly subsistence-oriented and fulfills multiple functions that contribute more to food security (Duguma et al. 2010). Despite the large livestock resources with high potential for meat and milk production, several factors that influenced the development of the livestock sector in Ethiopia include the poor genetic performance of the indigenous animals, inadequate veterinary services, shortage of animal feeds as well as the absence of good management systems (Ergano 2015). Sheep rearing is among the most crucial agricultural activities in the highlands of Ethiopia where crop production is unreliable. Sheep provide farm households with cash income, meat, fiber, and manure. As compared to large ruminants, small ruminants like sheep have shorter production cycles, faster growth rates, ease of management, and, low capital investment (Tadesse et al. 2015). In the absence of enough grazing land, small ruminants are efficient meat and milk producers for the smallholder farmers. They require small space and feed. These days, as a result of crop encroachment and degradation of communal grazing lands, there is a general shift in livestock holding from cattle to small ruminants because of the consistently dwindling grazing land (Taye et al. 2010). Feed scarcity, water shortage, disease/parasite, and shortage, market problem, inbreeding, capital problem, poor management, awareness problem, and untimely credit access are among the constraints for the sheep production system in Ethiopia (Feleke et al. 2015). The main objective of this study is to characterize the production system, describe the production objectives and breeding practices of the sheep producers, generate information on the sheep breeds and breeding systems, and provide baseline information for designing breeding