Relating household characteristics to urban sheep keeping in West Africa

Urban sheep production is widespread in Bobo-Dioulasso despite its formal illegality. This study was aimed at the identification of socioeconomic characteristics influencing the decisions of households to take up this activity. One hundred and thirty-six households (half of them keeping sheep, half not keeping small ruminants) were interviewed to collect data on their socioeconomic situation. Three techniques of multivariate analyses were compared. Cluster analysis and logistic regression revealed the following socioeconomic differences between the two groups: the probability of keeping sheep increases with the size of the household and the rate of illiteracy. Households are also more likely to keep sheep if urban cattle husbandry is practised, if there is only one household in the compound and if the keeper has already changed his/her trade at least once. Correspondence analysis provided visual confirmation of these results. Cluster analysis allowed a more profound understanding of the situation by drawing attention to a ‘transitional differentiation’: non-keepers in a group of keepers and vice versa tell us something about potential future keepers or non-keepers.