Current Knowledge on the Lagune Cattle Breed in Benin: A State of the Art Review

Abstract

This paper summarizes the information on the Lagune cattle breed and its production systems in Benin available in peer-reviewed journals, conference papers and research reports covering the period from 1970 to 2020. Lagune cattle are kept in two production systems in Benin: the improved ranching system established at the Governmental farm of Samiondji, where most of the published studies on this breed have been achieved, and the village traditional production system. This breed has a small size with short horns. Reported adult weight varied from 140 to 180 kg for male and from 100 to 140 kg for female. Lagune cows are bad dairy. The breed plays an important role in the livelihoods of the rural people and has many functions, including cultural, ecological, socio-economic, savings and income provision roles. Most of the reports emphasizes its low productivity, which might rather be more related to its poor management conditions than to its genetic potential. The Lagune breed is reported to have adaptive traits such as tolerance to drought and heat, and resistance to ticks and diseases. In 1975, the Government of Benin, having realized the risk of the disappearance of this breed, devoted the Samiondji Farm to its ex situ conservation and set up a purebred multiplication herd. Since then, there have been very few efforts to comprehensively characterize this breed and its productivity under smallholder production systems. Consequently, the opportunities for its in situ conservation, management and sustainable use by the rural communities are not sufficiently explored.