THE JUDICIOUS USE OF EQUINES
services the equines deliver to the agricultural world and the factors threatening their mere survival.
The current status of the global equine population
Figure 1 presents the distribution statistics of the global equines ' population in 2021. The FAOSTAT ( 2021 ) dataset presents sum- mary statistics of the global donkey, horse, mule and hinny popula- tions for 106, 161 and 66 countries, respectively. There were no data available for the three (Bahrain, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) for donkeys, three nations (the Bahamas,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo
and South Sudan) for horses and five nations (Albania, Libya, the Republic of Korea, South Sudan and the USA) for mules and hinnies. Ethiopia has the highest number of donkeys, whereas the
Republic of Korea does not. The data for horses ranged from the lowest for Grenada to the highest for the USA. Armenia had the least number of mules and hinnies, whereas Mexico had the most. According to FAOSTAT ( 2021 ), there are 53 million don- keys, 60 million horses and 7.8 million mules and hinnies world- wide. However, no ponies were recorded. The trend of the global equines population for which data are available (1961–2021) is presented in Figures 2–4 for donkeys, horses, mules and hinnies, respectively. Accordingly, although the trend in the donkey pop- ulation has shown a remarkable increase in recent times, which is intriguing, the horse population is highly fluctuating and shows a general trend of decline. However, although the mule and hinny populations showed a sort of growth up until the 1990s, their pop- ulations declined thereafter. Significant fluctuation of data over a short haul with irregular patterns calls for cautious scrutinisation of inconsistent reports.
Maintaining the historical use values of equines
Smallholder farmers have used both conventional and non-conven- tional methods to increase the use of equines in agricultural systems. The opportunities and threats associated with equine farming co- exist. For instance, in some regions of Ethiopia, even though it is
Opportunities for equine farming
There are several opportunities to carry on the legacy of equine farming, which are discussed in this section.
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FIGURE 2 The global donkey population growth trend from the year 1961 to 2021.
FIGURE 1
The dispersion pattern of the global equines ' population in the year 2021.
FIGURE 3 The global horse population growth trend from the year 1961 to 2021.
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