Abstract:
Economic opportunities exist for small ruminant producers to supply animals to both the
export and domestic markets. The growing demands of meat products at the domestic as
well as international markets also increase the importance of goat in the national
economy of the country. Despite the large size of the country’s goat population, the
productivity per unit of goat and the contribution of the goat sector to the national
economy is relatively low. Understanding traits that are important in determining goat
prices is vital to produce goats targeted to satisfy the increasing market demand so as to
make producers grasp better benefits and improve their livelihoods. Therefore, this study
was aimed at establishing a hedonic price analysis of indigenous goat traits in the
domestic markets of the Afar region, Northeast Ethiopia with specific objectives of
characterizing the major traits of indigenous goats; analyzing the implicit prices of the
indigenous goat traits; and identifying demographic and socioeconomic factors
influencing the indigenous goat price in the study area. A hedonic price model was fitted
to analyze factors determining the observed goat prices. Multi-stage sampling technique
was employed to select representative samples. The study was based on the transaction
data from 200 goats and goat buyers generated through a formal survey conducted in
three sample markets in Administrative Zone 1 of the Afar region. To analyze the collected
data, the fitted hedonic price model was used with OLS and Heteroscedasticity consistent
estimations. The statistical software STATA version 12 (STATA, 2011) was used for
analysis of the collected data. Of the indigenous goat traits, body size, body condition, age
of the goat, and castration and fattening significantly influenced the observed goat prices.
The study also identified demographic and socioeconomic factors influencing the
indigenous goat prices. Based on this, purpose of purchase, income level, literacy status,
family size, from whom the goat was bought, distance from urban center, and buyer-seller
prior relationships significantly influenced the goat price in the study area.
