Role of Goats in Livelihood Security of Rural Poor in the Less Favoured Environments

Goats play an important role in the food and nutritional security of the rural poor especially in the rainfed regions where crop production is uncertain, and rearing large ruminants is restricted by acute scarcity of feed and fodder. Goat rearing has distinct economic and managerial advantages over other livestock because of its less initial investment, low input requirement, higher prolificacy, early sexual maturity, and ease in marketing. Goats can efficiently survive on available shrubs and trees in unfavourable environments. In pastoral societies in India, goats are kept as a source of additional income and as an insurance against income shocks of crop failure. In addition, the rural poor who cannot afford to maintain a cow or a buffalo find goat as the best alternative source of supplementary income and milk. This is one reason why poor rural households maintain a few number of goats. Unlike a cow or buffalo, a few goats can be maintained easily and can be easily liquidated in times of distress. In recent years, goat enterprise has also shown promise of its successful intensification and commercialisation (Kumar, 2007 a, b). Owing to their greater socio-economic relevance, the growth in goat population in India over the past five decades (19512003) has been steady adding 1.484 million goats annually. About 70 per cent of the landless agricultural labourers, marginal and small farmers in the country are associated with goat husbandry. They are not only an important source of income and employment for them, but also a vital source of animal protein for the family. In spite of having potential of good economic returns from goat rearing, goat farmers have very poor income levels. There may be a number of reasons responsible for such a situation. The productivity of goats under the prevailing traditional extensive production system is low (Singh and Kumar, 2007) mainly because of feed scarcity and lack of adoption of improved technologies and management practices. Goat rearing, which is one of the most widely adopted livestock activities in the country, has the potential to emerge as a very good source of income and employment for the rural people especially in the less favoured environments. However to harness this potential, the productivity and profitability of existing goat production systems needs to be improved substantially. A comprehensive understanding of the socio-economics of goat production would however be a pre-condition for any intervention