Compilation and adoption of ethno-veterinary medicine, traditional and other management practices by small ruminant farmers in Edo State Nigeria.

An inventory study into the ethno-veterinary medicine and traditional management practices and the extent of their adoption in the management of small ruminants by farmers in Edo State, Nigeria was carried out. Three hundred and fifty (350) small ruminant farmers randomly chosen from the seven (7) randomly selected local government areas in the state were used for the study. Data pertaining to farmers' background information, small ruminant acquisition and rearing as well as the ethno-veterinary medicines (EVMs) adopted were collected through a scheduled interview where structured questionnaires were administered. Data collected were used in the computation of ethno-veterinary medicine use indices (EVMUIs) and were subjected to simple statistical analysis. Results showed that 60.5% of the farmers interviewed were male while 39.4% were females and 56.9% of them were above 40 years old. About 60% of the farmers had between primary and secondary education, while 33.1% have no formal education and about 86% had little or no exposure to mass media. Thirty-seven (37) different EVMs/Traditional practices were identified. Based on their EVMUIs, 11 or 29.73% were highly used, 9 or 24.32% were moderately used while 17 or 45.95% were poorly used by farmers. Materials identified were noted to be locally available and were fully discussed. It is concluded that EVMs practices are actually adapted to the culture and socio-economic realities of resource poor farmers and means of spreading the knowledge among small scale farmers should be encouraged.