Goat World & India

Goat World & India

There is tremendous development in the goat industry in last few decades but little attention has been paid for indigenous goat, due to its poor producing ability. Two third of the world’s poor live in Asia below nationally defined poverty lines and 65% of them are poor livestock keepers who derive a large part of their household a from domesticated animals. The rapidly changing patterns of demand for livestock and livestock products point to livestock production being an increasing component of the agriculture economies of Asia. The extant to which the rural poor will benefit from these changes depends on how livestock can be integrated into developing markets and whether cheaper livestock products benefit the rural poor as consumers as well as production. There is scope for small ruminants to play an important role for smallholder farmers in accessing these new markets. Their significance, which is now being exploited in several countries, is that they are small livestock in high demand and can thrive on low inputs and local resources. Of the two small ruminants – sheep and goats is much more important in most parts of the region.

The Goat is through to have been the earliest domesticated ruminant and of all the species of domesticated animals expect dog, has the widest ecological range. Originating in Asia, goats have spread over all the continents and inhabits almost all climatic zones from arctic-circle to the equator. Goats have served the mankind earlier and longer than cattle and sheep. They are often termed as there poor man’s cow. They are also linked with desert like paddy with poverty in India. They have distinct social, economical, managerial and biological advantages over other livestock species. They significantly contribute to the agrarian economy and play a very vital role in the livelihood security of the small and marginal farmers and landless especially in arid, semi-arid and mountainous regions of the country .Goats have several advantage over other animals. They are widely adapted .They thrive well and reproduce in tropical, cold, humid as well as dry regions. Their breeding animals are inexpensive .Goats consume a wide Variety of grasses ,weeds, forbs ,bushes, shrubs, tree leaves and crop residues that would otherwise go waste and cause pollution .They are gentle and easy to control .Their small size makes them suitable for home slaughter and the meat can be consumed by the family before it spoils in warm climate where no refrigeration facilities are available .The goats can be milked any time of the day and are therefore named as the moving refrigerators .Goat milk is prescribed for children ,old and sick as it is easily digestible and has medicinal value, Goat meat (chevon) is preferred over other meats because it is leaner and there are no religious taboos against its consumption.

GOAT POPULATION AND PRODUCTION :

World’s current population of goats is around 783 million .Asian region possesses about 63.78% and India 15.33 % of the total world population of the goat (FAO ,2004). Goat population in the world, has shown increasing trend since 1951 and goat population has increased at much faster rate than cattle and sheep in India .Word’s current goat population is around 782.95 million .Asian region has the highest and over 63.20% of the world population of goats .India possesses 120.0 million making 24.10% of Asia and 15.33% of the world goat population .In Dhar district goat population is 3, 73,403 nos(Data from MPRLP). The developing countries of the world have been about 94.5% of the goats and the developed ones only the rest 5.5% .While the goat population has increased in Asia and African regions it decreased in America, Europe and Russia during the last over three decades. The over all world growth rate, however, has been almost uniform during the also about 25 years. The growth rate in India varied from 0.94 to 5.13% with an average of 3.05% during 1951-2002. The goats around the world contributed 12388.7 TMT of milk, 4370.3 TMT of meat and 973.4 TMT of fresh skins annually .The Asian region contributed 54.26% of the milk, 74.09% of the meat and 79.71% of the fresh skins of the world production of goats. India produced 22.27% of the milk, 10.87% of the meat and 13.31% of the fresh skins of the world and 41.05% of the milk, 14.67% of the meat and 16.70% of the fresh skins of the Asian goat Production. Around 89% of the goats in the world are reared primarily for meat. In India about 41% of the total production of goat meat in India was 505g. Goats around the world contributed only 2.12% of the total meat and 1.60% of the total milk production from all species. Thus Asian region among the world and India among the Asian countries contributed highest quantities of all the important goat production. (souvenir-cum-proceedings of national workshop cum seminar 2006).

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