NATIONAL  ACTION PLAN ON GOAT FOR  AATM NIRBHAR BHARAT

NATIONAL  ACTION PLAN ON GOAT FOR  AATM NIRBHAR BHARAT

DR. RAJESH KR. SINGH,

India occupies first position in terms of goat population and milk production. Chevon (goat meat) is most preferred and widely consumed meat in the country. Since ancient times goat milk has traditionally been known for its medicinal properties and has recently gained importance in human health due to its proximity to human milk for easy digestibility and it‟s all round health promoting traits. Still research is needed to explore and validate medicinal properties of goat milk for projecting it as therapeutic milk for human health. Demand for goat milk and milk products for internal consumption and export is expected to rise in coming years. Goat husbandry provides glimpses of future hope for employment generation, nutritional security and prosperity to the millions of small and marginal farmers in the country.

 

Basic Information of Goat as a livestock in the Country

 

Role in Rural Economy :

 

Among all species of farm animals, Goats have the widest ecological range and have been poor people‟s most reliable livelihood resource since their domestication during Neolithic Revolution about 10 millennia ago. Goat plays a significant role in providing supplementary income and livelihood to millions of resource poor farmers and landless laborers of rural India. Small ruminant rearing ensures self-employment and acts as a cushion in distress situations like drought and famine.

 

 

Role in entrepreneurship:

In last few years, goat production in the country gained momentum in the form of a commercially viable enterprise as evidenced by increasing interest of young entrepreneurs to develop knowledge and skill in this species. In many small-herd dairy goat enterprises, not all does must be milked, so meat is often the main product. Along with meat, the sale of breeding stock from small herds of dairy goats may be an important income source. This versatility allows the producer to plan and operate a more stable economic production unit. In some parts of the world, all breeds may be raised for fiber, meat, and milk and cheese production. Kids of all breeds can be used for meat. However, meat goat carcasses are generally leaner and more muscular than dairy goat carcasses.

Role in global scenario:

 

India ranks on top in goat population. The demand for meat, milk and fiber is increasing progressively and expected to further rise in future in view of sizable increase in per capita income and health consciousness of people. Worldwide consumers are preferring products that are “clean, green and ethical”. As such goat producers are shifting to husbandry practices that do not compromise the welfare of animals. Medicinal properties of goat milk increased the interest of society to use it as therapeutic health food neutraceutical; moreover, biotechnologists are focusing on designer milk for human health.

 

Role in Nutrition and Health:

 

Goats possess distinct social, economical and biological advantages. They can be maintained on a limited area and can sustain on wide variety of vegetation in varied agro‐climatic conditions. Goat meat (chevon) is one of most preferred meat type by the consumers in several countries including India. The goat milk is easily digestible due to smaller size of fat globules and serves as a ready source of family nutrition. In India, both demand and production of goat meat have shown steady increase during the last decade and despite the rising production trend, country would need to double the number of goats to meet the projected requirement of goat meat for growing human population in the coming decades.

2. Current Scenario

Traditionally goat has served as source of livelihood and financial security to large section of society, mainly comprising of resource‐poor people. In the present scenario of changing agro‐climatic conditions, this small ruminant farm animal has tremendous potential to be projected as the „Future Animal‟ for rural and urban prosperity. The backyard goat rearing is steadily turning as the fast growing „livestock industry‟ in the country. Goat husbandry in India is essentially an endeavor of millions of small holders who rear animals on “Crop Residues” and “Common Property Resources”. The small holders produce milk, meat, fiber, skin etc for the community with virtually no capital, resource and formal training. More often goats are reared for production of meat, but they also serve as ready source for milk to meet the family requirement.

 

Registered Breeds of Goat:

 

Our country has 26 registered breeds of Goat. Out of these, the high genetic merit (more meat / milk yield per animal) indigenous registered breeds exist are only 12 breeds. The 12 breeds of high genetic merit Goat have a population of 4.55crore out of total population of 13.5 crore.

Goat Milk Production Milk and milk products are the essential food items of human beings which provide sufficient nutritional supplements especially to the children. The milk production in the country has increased from 146.3 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 155.5 in 2015- 16 registering a growth of 6.27%. Also,the per capita availability has sharply increased from 225 gm per day in 2003-04 to 337 gm per day in 2015-16.

 

Species wise milk production:

The country stands first in goat milk production and is sharing 26.31% goat milk production in the world. } The total milk production in the country 155.5 million tones } The total Goat milk production 5377.59 thousand tones (3%) } growth of 6.27%.

The top 5 states in terms of the goat milk production estimate in India were: Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra during 2014-15.

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 people as it is easily digestible and has possible medicinal value.

 

 

Goat Production

 

Systems in India In our country, goats are reared by men and women with diverse working and professional background. The production systems are as numerous as the socioeconomic and varied agricultural situations in the country. However, they can be broadly classified into the following:-

 

Tethering:

 

This is common in the sub-humid and humid zones, where probably because of intensive cropping, it is a convenient means of rearing goats from the stand point of control, minimum labour input and utilization of feed in situ. It is thus a sedentary system. A variation of this method is combining tethering with grazing up to 5 goats at a time, led by ropes held by women and children.

 

Extensive production :

 

This involves low carrying capacity in situations where land is marginal and is plentiful. It is characterized by low rainfall and various browse plants. The system is used by nomadic people, usually in very low rainfall areas or during winter months when crop resides are available.

 

Intensive production:

 

The goats are fed in confinement with limited access to land. It involves high labour and cash inputs. Cultivated grasses and agroindustrial byproducts are fed in situ. This system also has the advantage of allowing control over the animals.

 

Semi-intensive production:

 

This system is practiced to some degree in most of the situations, but the nature and extent of integration depend on the type of crops grown and their suitability to goats. The advantages of this system are increased fertility of land via the return of dung and urine, control of waste herbage growth, reduced fertilizer usage, easier crop management, increased crop yields, and greater economic returns.

 

Status of Goat industry

 

The goat industry in India has yet to be firmly laid down on scientific lines. Goat keepers are maintaining goats in all kinds of situations depending upon the ecology and their circumstances. The minimum goat unit could consist of one goat and the maximum could go to a few hundreds under range management. Goat farming in the country is mainly based on „zero input‟. The fear of mortality has perhaps been largely responsible for not starting many large-scale goat farms. However, largescale goat farms have successfully running since over last 30 years at the CSWRI Avikanagar, MPKVV Rahuri, and at Leh.

 

Demand-Supply Gap Analysis

 

In India, considerable growth has been recorded in production of goat meat and milk during the last decade. The goat meat production has doubled (9.3% to 18.3%) and goat milk production has shown a growth rate of 31.53% during the last decade. The country stands first in goat milk production and is the second largest meat producer in the world sharing 26.31% goat milk and 10.41% goat meat production. Besides meat and milk, goats also produce good quality skin, valuable Pashmina fibre and manure. The goat sector contributes ` 14,453 crores to the agricultural economy of the country through meat (`6851 crores), milk (`4588 crores), skin (` 648 crores), etc. which accounts for around 8 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from livestock sector. In addition, the goat sector generates about 4% rural employment and about 20 million small and marginal farmers‟ and landless labourers‟ families depend on goats for their livelihood partially or completely. Even then we are not able to meet the increased domestic demand of the products and tap the potential of the sector in its full capacity by using the available opportunities.

1) Goat meat has a number of health benefits and more nutritional value than other red meat. Low in calories, total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol than traditional meats, goat meat has higher levels of iron when compared to a similar serving size of beef, pork, lamb and chicken. Comparatively, goat meat also contains higher potassium content with lower sodium levels.

 

2) The availability of meat in India is only about 15g/person/day against the ICMR recommendation of 30g/person/day. Thus it is apparent that there exists a huge gap of meat availability.

 

3) Analysed from the point of required nutrition, as per WHO standards, the daily requirement of protein is 63 gm per day. In average Indian diet conditions, 50.75 gm per day per person (approx.) for the vegetarian population, and about 55.25 gm per day per person (approx.) for the nonvegetarian population is available. Notwithstanding this, the average deficit of protein requirement is approximately 12.25 gm for vegetarian and 7.75 gm for non-vegetarian. 4) As per IGAR and BAHS data, goat population in the country is expected to reach to 216 million in 2050 with milk and skin production to 9.8 and 0.25 million tonnes, respectively. Urbanization, increased income and strong preference to goat meat will be some of major contributing factors for growth in goat meat production. Considering 14 kg per animal carcass weight and 45% of goats available for slaughter, the goat meat production will increase to 1.36 million tonnes by 2050. As per NSSO reports, per capita per month consumption of goat meat/ mutton has increased from 53 gram to 61 gram during 2003-04 to 2009-10. Considering 3% growth in per capita goat meat/mutton consumption, the demand for goat meat by 2050 would be 2.13 million tonnes. (NIANP, 2013). 5) Moreover, by 2050, it is expected that the population in India would increase by 34% and to fulfill the dietary recommended levels of the livestock products by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for a population of 1.7 billion people, the livestock sector should produce 186.2 million tons of milk, 18.7 million tons of meat and 306 billion eggs per annum. This means that the current level of production, the milk, meat and eggs would have to increase by 1.5, 3 and 4.7 times respectively. Fulfilling the feed demand of this huge livestock from same resource base of land and water is going to be a huge challenge. Therefore, rather than increasing the number of animals, improving the genetics through breed improvement programme might be a better strategy to address the required demand for animal protein.

Doubling Farmers Income

Past strategy for development of the agriculture sector in India has focused primarily on raising agricultural output and improving food security. The net result has been a 45 per cent increase in per person food production, which has made India not only food self-sufficient at aggregate level, but also a net food exporting country.

.2 It is apparent that income earned by a farmer from agriculture is crucial to address agrarian distress (Chand 2016) and promote farmers welfare. In this background, the goal set to double farmers’ income by 2022-23 is central to promote farmers welfare, reduce agrarian distress and bring parity between income of farmers and those working in non-agricultural professions.

3 In the Goat farming sector, Doubling the income of farmers through different interventions which can make the sector more organised and strengthened would definitely increase the output or the income of the sector.

Key areas of Doubling the income of farmers are,

1. Improvement in productivity of animals.

resource use efficiency or saving in cost of production

2. increase in production intensity
3. Diversification towards high value products/ Value addition of Products.

 

SWOT Analysis of Goat Farming Sector

 

 

STRENGTHS

1. India is having the second highest number of Sheep & Goat. (After China).
2. Extraordinary hardiness and ability to adapt to the most harsh regions and facility of movement in rugged and harsher terrains
3. Indigenous breeds with good potential
4. Marketing potential for wool and meat.
5. Regulatory compliance.
6. Low production costs compared to other breeds and animal species

 

WEAKNESS

 

1.Unorganised structure of sector.

2. Lack of marketing infrastructure facilities for Value addition such as meat processing, warehousing, Cold storage, refrigerated vehicles
3. Absence of Public Private Partnership.
4. Lack of demand driven interventions
5. Scarcity of good breeding stock,
6. Inadequate veterinary and extension services,
7. Lack of credit and access to markets.

 

OPPORTUNITIES

1. The growing demand of products
2. Low start-up cost
3. Integrated Systems Farming/ Mixed Species Farming
4. Untapped potential for the export & value added products.
5. Paradigm shift in Government policies.
6. Modern production technologies

 

THREATS

1. Extreme climatic conditions and natural calamities.

2.Invasion of diseases

3.Depletion of natural resources (pastural land)

4. Urbanisation.
5. Tax regulations for marketing and other transactions.

 

 

 

 

Challenges of the Goat Rearing Sector

 

Types of Challenges The future well being of the Indian Goat industry depends on the potential for profitability, which is affected by various challenges and opportunities. Thre are three kinds of Challenges observed in the sector.

1. Technical Challenges
2. Commercial Challenges 3. Other Challenges

Technical Challenges

1. Unavailability of high Genetic Potential breeds of Goat.(Livestock breeds and breeding)
2. Absence of high productive exotic breed for Crossbreeding
3. Lack of Scientific feeding practices
4. Health challenges like PPR,CCPP etc..
5. High kid mortality
6. Proper animal health services and Availability of drugs

Commercial Challenges

1. Marketing facilities
2. Unorganised nature of the sector
3. Endemic disease problems, and trans-boundary disease risks,
4. Feed resources (Grassland based ruminant systems are largely dependent on pasture grazing) and Feed supply chains (compound feed mixing and milling),
5. Institutional support for entrepreneurship.

 

Other Challenges

(1) Competition for resources

(i) Land In the more arid–semiarid areas, livestock are a key mechanism for managing risk, but population increases are fragmenting rangelands in many places, making it increasingly difficult for pastoralists to gain access to the feed and water resources that they have traditionally been able to access.

(ii) Water Groundwater and freshwater resources play an important role in water supply:

between 1.5 and 3 billion people depend on groundwater for drinking, and in some regions water tables are declining unremittingly (Rodell et al. 2009). By 2025, 64 per cent of the world’s population will live in water-stressed basins, compared with 38 per cent today (Rosegrant et al. 2002). Increasing livestock numbers in the future will clearly add to the demand for water, particularly in the production of livestock feed:

 

(2) Climate change

 

Climate change may have substantial effects on the global livestock sector. Increasing climate variability will undoubtedly increase livestock production risks as well as reduce the ability of farmers to manage these risks. In the more intensive systems, progress could be made in mitigating GHG emissions from the livestock sector via increases in the efficiency of production using available technology, for the most part, and this may involve some shifting towards monogastric species.

 

(3) Socio-cultural modifiers

 

Social and cultural drivers of change are having profound effects on livestock systems in particular places, although it is often unclear how these drivers play out in relation to impacts on livestock and livestock systems. Livestock have multiple roles in human society. They contribute substantially and directly to food security and to human health. For poor and under-nourished people, particularly children, the addition of modest amounts of livestock products to their diets can have substantial benefits for physical and mental health.

 

 

Livestock also serve as financial instruments, by providing households with an alternative for storing savings or accumulated capital, and they can be sold and transformed into cash as needed and so also provide an instrument of liquidity, consumption smoothing and insurance. For some poorer households, livestock can provide a means of income diversification to help deal with times of stress. In addition to their food security, human health, economic and environmental roles, livestock have important social and cultural roles.

(4) Ethical concerns as a driver of change Ethical concerns may play an increasing role in affecting the production and consumption of livestock products. Recent high-profile calls to flock to the banner of global vegetarianism, backed by exaggerated claims of livestock’s role in anthropogenic global greenhouse gas emissions, though debates, it could become an issue sometimes in future.

(5) Wildcard drivers of change There is considerable uncertainty related to technological development and to social and cultural change.

(i) Artificial meat (more correctly, in vitro meat) From a technological point of view, this may not be a wildcard at all, as its development is generally held to be perfectly feasible (Cuhls 2008), and indeed research projects on it have been running for a decade already. In vitro meat could potentially bypass many of the public health issues that are currently associated with livestock-based meat. The development and uptake of in vitro meat on a large scale would unquestionably be hugely disruptive to the traditional livestock sector.

(ii) Nanotechnology This refers to an extremely dynamic field of research and application associated with particles of 1–100 nm in size (the size range of many molecules). Some particles of this size have peculiar physical and chemical properties, and it is such  peculiarities that nanotechnology seeks to exploit. Nanoparticles may be able to affect nutrient uptake and induce more efficient utilization of nutrients for milk production, for example. One possible approach to animal waste management involves adding nanoparticles to manure to enhance biogas production from anaerobic digesters or to reduce odours (Scott 2006).

(iii) Deepening social concerns about specific technology Much evidence points to a serious disconnect between science and public perceptions. Marked distrust of science is a recurring theme in polls of public perceptions of nuclear energy, genetic modification and, spectacularly, anthropogenic global warming. One of several key reasons for this distrust is a lack of credible, transparent and well-communicated risk analyses associated with many of the highly technological issues of the day. One area where there are numerous potential applications to agriculture is the use of transgenic methodology to develop new or altered strains of livestock. These applications include improved milk production and composition, increased growth rate, improved feed usage, improved carcass composition, increased disease resistance, enhanced reproductive performance, and increased prolificacy‟ (Wheeler 2007, p. 204). Social concerns could seriously jeopardize even the judicious application of such new science and technology in providing enormous economic, environmental and social benefits. If this is to be avoided, technology innovation has to take fully into account the health and environmental risks to which new technology may give rise. Serious and rapid attention needs to be given to risk analysis and communications policy.

 

Strategies to address the Challenges

 

In order to attain the targets of National Action Plan, primary attention shall be given to the overall improvement of the sheep rearing sector which includes the following factors,

1 Breeding and Genetics

• Nutrition
• 3 Health Improvement and Prevention of Diseases
• 4 Marketing
• 5 Other Farmer and Animal Welfare activities.

 

Breeding and Genetics

 

To increase the meat and milk production per se and per animal, breed improvement is the key strategy. There are several Methods of Genetic Improvement of Indian Goat, which includes the 4 step Action Plan with focus on separate identified breeds for meat and milk production.The 4 steps are:

1. Breed Improvement of the identified breeds of Goat from amongst the same breed but higher comparative genetic merit animal (example – better Sirohi Goat for higher weight of meat per animal by selective breeding from amongst the same species better genotypes/phenotypes) – that is pure line high genetic merit breeding
2. Breed improvement of identified breeds of lesser genetic merit (example selective breeding of lesser breed Marwari with better species breed of Sirohi Goat) – that is hybrid high genetic merit breeding
3. Breed improvement of much lower yield but high population non-descript breed which is typically lesser in genetic merit than the least merit identified breed itself – that is hybrid of low genetic merit non-descript breed with high genetic identified breed 4. Breed improvement through hybrid of high genetic merit exotic germplasm of suitable genetic traits for higher meat and milk production.

 

Goat Nutrition Improvement

1) The nutritional needs of farm animals with respect to energy, protein, minerals and vitamins have long been known, and these have been refined in recent decades.

2) Poor nutrition is one of the major production constraints in smallholder systems,

3) There are also prospects for using novel feeds from various sources to provide alternative sources of protein and energy, such as plantation crops and crops such as maize, sorghum, millet and groundnut.

4) Addressing the nutritional constraints faced by pastoralists in extensive rangeland systems in the developing world is extremely difficult. While there is potential to improve livestock productivity in semi-arid and arid areas, probably the most feasible solutions require integrated application of what is already known, rather than new technology. This could involve dissemination of information from farmer to scientists and vice versa.

5) Public health issues will become increasingly important, such as concerns associated with the use of antibiotics in animal production, including microbiological hazards and residues in food. So keeping in view of consumer concerns for food safety and quality, we need to make awareness to the farmers with regard to the judicious use of antibiotics/vaccines.

 

Health Improvement and Prevention of Diseases.

 

Occurrence of diseases causes heavy economic losses in terms of livestock health and production. Advances in animal health are expected to play a major role in the progress of livestock industry. Control of animal diseases assumes prime importance in the crucial time of shifting of animal agriculture from extensive to intensive and commercial system of management. Presence and accumulation of infectious agents in the environment lead to reduction in quality and quantity of animal products. Strategic control and eradication of economically important diseases will result in enhancing goat production in the country. Diseases in Goats can be broadly classified as non-infectious and infectious. Prevention of disease plays a major role in increasing profitability in a Goat farm. Vaccination against infectious diseases is an important component of health management.

1. a) Non-infectious diseases:- Approximately 80% of deaths in kids have been estimated due to non-infectious causes. Starvation, primarily from mismothering and behaviour, nutritional and environmental stress, reproductive problems and predation are the major causes reported (pneumonia, acidosis etc…)
2. b) Infectious diseases:-In most of the diseases like Blue Tongue, ET and PPR the incubation period is less than 24 hrs. Antibiotics are recommended to check secondary infections. Vaccination is the best control.
3. c) Deficiency diseases:-

• Young Goat grazing on drought-stricken pastures can suffer serious depletion of reserves of minerals and vitamins.
• Calcium and Glucose: Characterized by Pregnancy Toxemia, Ketosis,Lactational problems and Fatty-liver disease. Growth and Milk production may also severely affected..
• Calcium, Phosphorous & Vit. D : The daily requirement of Ca, P & Vit. D for an adult Goat is about 2.5 gm, 1.5 gm and 300-500 units, respectively. Deficiency may result in rickets in kids and Osteomalacia in adults. Mineral supplementation in diet is essential to prevent this deficiency

. · Vitamin A : Vit. A deficiency occurs in Goats on dry countryside during periods of drought. Symptoms include night blindness, corneal keratinization, ptyriasis, hoof defects, loss of weight and infertility. Congenital defects are common in the offspring of deficient dams. Animals should have access to green pasture and should be supplied with Vit. A in feed to prevent deficiency. In India, the last few decades have seen a general reduction in the burden of livestock diseases, except PPR as a result of more effective drugs and vaccines and improvements in diagnostic technologies and services.

 

Marketing(Goat Meat and Milk Processing Sector)

 

Meat production and supply of meat for local consumption is the most neglected sector in the country. Meat is sold in open premises leading to contamination from dirt, dust, flies and other pollutants. The traditional production systems and the unhygienic practices have ruined and flawed the image of the Indian meat industry. Indian meat industry on scientific and modern lines is need for benefiting livestock producers, processors, finally consumers.

• Development of adequate market infrastructure with basic requirements is must for marketing.
• Because of the unorganized nature of the sector farmer is not getting good price.
• Lack of scientifically designed good abattoirs and processing plants discourage the farmer to start scientific rearing of meat goats/limit the flock number.
• Quality Assurance of Goat meat quality assurance needs to be addressed..
• Along with the production and productivity increase marketing facilities should be prioritized to compete the export markets and to increase the income.
• Processing and value addition to goat meat and milk products and by‐products is urgently required. The following activities shall be undertaken to tap the domestic as well as export markets.

1. Setting up of State of Art- Abattoir cum meat processing plants: In India, there are only 10 most modern state of art mechanized abattoir cum meat processing plants in various states for slaughtering of buffaloes and sheep. These plants are eco-friendly as the by-products are utilized for production of MBM, tallow, bone chips etc. In addition, establishment of Effluent Treatment Plant for waste water treatment from abattoir and lairage, with the water discharged having BOD values 30 ppm. These plants follow SPS measures prescribed by the International Animal Health Code of O.I.E. To meet the requirement we need more scientifically designed abottairs and meat processing plants.
2. Raising Meat Breeds of Goats:

In India a major potential exists for Goat rearing for meat purposes. The meat breeds can be salvaged for meat production thereby improving the economic condition of the farmers and also meat production for domestic and export market. These animals can be reared without the use of hormones, antibiotics, and growth promoters. They can then be slaughtered scientifically for meat production.

3. The Rearing Bucks: Contractual farming as backward integration to modern abattoir: A strong need has been felt to establish a production base around Each modern abattoir to produce quality and disease free animals as per SPS requirements of O.I.E. The success story of broiler farming with contract farming can be employed here to safeguard the interest of small and marginal farmers by providing them the feed, medicine and marketing of finished product and ascertaining a fixed remuneration to farmers.
4. Setting up cold storages: Meat is nutrient dense food which makes it perishable commodity. In order to improve keeping quality of meat, cold chain is of crucial importance during transport as well as storage till it reaches to consumers. The Government should support setting up cold storages, supply/value chain and 100% export oriented slaughter houses in the country.
5. Development of a protocol for small size modern slaughterhouse, which can be implemented through veterinary Research Institutions.
6. Value addition and Processing of Goat Milk and Meat: For commercial exploitation of the value added goat foods, development of shelf stable products assumes greater importance and work will be carried out in this direction. Novel functional products such as antioxidant enriched, omega‐3 fatty acids enriched, low cholesterol goat milk products, herbal products, low calorie indigenous goat foods and minerals and vitamins fortified functional products and low cholesterol foods will be evaluated. It is suggested that convergence of activities of different Departments like MoFPI, DoC..etccan be promoted for this.
7. Consumer Oriented Programmes: Shelf life enhancement employing novel processing and packaging options will be critical to address the issues of production of quality products for wider marketing network. Newer healthful and functional ingredients such as fruits, vitamins, bioactive peptides & natural antioxidants, and probiotics could be incorporated into product formulation to enhance value and offer consumers. Under this we can promote Self Help Groups, Women SHGs ,Youth Entrepreneurship programmes by including in the existing category of EDEG like schemes.

 

8.Marketing Development:

 

Understanding the market and preparing it to respond to emerging market trends would be the prime instrument for enhancing the domestic livelihood opportunities in the goat sector. Most of the meat production and marketing practices in India are traditional. Wellintegrated marketing system for meat and meat products is lacking in India. The main reasons are monopoly of meat trader, lack of coordination between production and demand, too many middlemen in the trade and inefficiency management in slaughterhouse. There is a dire need to modernize the meat production and marketing system. Government of India is keen to improve the marketing system so that the consumers would get the quality meat and meat products at reasonable prices. So, this is the time to think about Emarketing Portal or other E connectivity methods and Use of Marketing Intelligence facilities.

1. National Animal Identification System for Traceability

There is a growing worldwide trend for countries to implement whole-of-life traceability systems for livestock due to the following reasons.

1) Massive increase in demand for food of animal origin

2) Longer and more complex transport and value chains

3) Intensification of production systems and development of industrial private sector

4) Reduction of public investment, transfer of certain services to private sector and awareness of shared responsibility

5) Awareness of consumers about food safety, quality, animal welfare and the environment

6) To increase the revenue through Exports. The system improves food safety, acts as a market export assurance program which improves India’s access to foreign export markets, and assists with disease control, tracing and management. Farmers must register their property with their local jurisdictional government if they hold one or more heads of livestock. As far as trade barriers of Indian Exports are concerned, traceability of Sheep and Goat is a problem especially, to meet the requirements of trading partners (such as the EU) of Developed countries. So, National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) is need of the hour as we are intending to increase the exports of livestock products.

 

Other Farmer and Animal welfare activities

 

The Goat development sector as a whole is unorganised. So, to organise the sector is the need of the hour.The following farmer oriented cum animal welfare activities can be considered for this purpose.

1) Scheme for Social Security for Goat Breeders ; Insurance schemes which will provide financial and social security to the farmer. The basic objective of the Goat Insurance Scheme is to provide insurance cover to animal in the case of accident including fire, lightning, storm, tempest, flood, inundation, earthquake, famine and diseases contracted or occurring during the period of the policy for project areas.

2) Developmental projects in the mode of Public Private Participation.

3) Common Facility Centre (CFC) for the rural Goat farmers

4) Efforts to make sector organizations/ co-operatives, to strengthen the production side ie, Production of good quality animals for slaughter is must for production of good quality meat. Hence, farmers‟ cooperative can play a major role in the field of production and marketing of quality animals, extension education and encouragement of backward integration / contract farming as in poultry industry for intensive and semi-intensive system of rearing small ruminants.

 

 

Objectives of National Action Plan 2022

 

Based on the Opportunities and Resources and keeping in mind the challenges, a National Action Plan is hereby proposed.

 

The key objectives are:

1) To increase the production and productivity of Goat Farming sector.

2) To meet the increased consumption demand of Chevon and Goat Milk.

3) Organization of sector and Development of Agripreneurship and Doubling of Farmers income

 

Key Strategies

 

To increase the production and productivity of Goat Farming sector,the following are the key strategies i. Genetic Improvement of Indigenous Goat through Open Nucleus breeding scheme. ii. Strengthening of Government Goat Breeding farms. i. Open Nucleus Breeding Scheme for Conservation and Improvement(Formation of ONBS) A Nucleus Breeding Program is a centralized improvement program method, in which very superior animals are brought together from supply farms to form an elite nucleus flock. Farmers have to agree to put their superior animals together. The nucleus or base may remain open to the best animals from the supply flocks. This system is, therefore, called the Open Nucleus Breeding Scheme(ONBS). Once the nucleus is established, an efficient recording and selection program can be implemented. Farmers in an area using the same communal grazing area can be organized to undertake a breed improvement program together. They can, select elite animals among the total flock to form a nucleus flock of breeding females. These will be mated to selected males (EXOTIC/Indiginous) to produce the next generation. This is coupled with continuous culling of inferior animals. Records on the performance of the nucleus flocks and their offspring will be kept. Rigorous selection and culling will be done continuously. The best animals will be retained and the least performing ones eliminated from the nucleus herd. High performing animals that have performances better than those culled from the nucleus herd selected from the annual round of inspections and selection among the village flocks will be promoted to membership of the nucleus flock. This process will continue resulting in a progressive increment of the average performance of the nucleus herd from generation to generation.

ONBS will have the following advantages:

 

• Animals entering the nucleus are tested under farm conditions;
• Selection is based on records for traits of economic value;
• The improvements are quickly spread as farmers participating in the schemes receive their replacement sires from the nucleus;
• A rapid generation turnover can be maintained;
• Inbreeding is avoided;
• Objectives are maintained for many years; and Small farmers benefit from coordinated effort, policy, pooled experience and shared facilities. Suggested Action plan The action plan for Goat breed improvement would firstly involve identification of the herd population of high genetic merit. The broad steps and the process to do this, would comprise:

. An exhibition with prize money for does with good phenotype will be conducted. The number of does identified should be at least 3 times more than the number of bucks required to cover the earmarked breedable female population of the selected districts (zone). The name and address of the owner of the does shall be taken and recorded to facilitate the skilled recorder to record the traits of the male kids thus given birth by such does.

1. Simultaneously, the required number of bucks with good vigour and phenotype will be identified and purchased by Government for breeding with the identified does. The number of such bucks shall be at a ratio of 1 buck per 30 identified does.

iii. Male kids born out of the identified does and having satisfactory growth rate and preferably out of twinning kids will be identified; records will be collected till 9 months of age at the farmer‟s house itself. Recorded data shall be sent to Central Institute for Research on Goats (CIRG), Makhdum, to get the approval to purchase the bucks for breeding. Recording of traits will be done by entrusted persons @ Rs.5000/-per month.

30. Following recommendations from the CIRG, Makhdum, the selected high genetic merit bucks will be purchased @ Rs.30,000/- and distributed to progressive farmers in the ratio of Buck: Doe=1:30. An agreement that they cannot sell off the bucks till 5 year and they have to allow to breed the nearby females of the villager by taking Rs. 50/- per service for looking after the buck shall be made. Any additional amount over the above purchase price for the buck shall have to be borne by the States, if required.

 

To meet the increased consumption demand of Chevon and Goat Milk, the following are the key strategies

1. Increasing the High Genetic merit Population by way of introduction of Artificial Insemination, ETT and other modern breeding techniques. Suggested Action Plan i. Establishment of Germplasm centres and Strengthening of AI centres and establishment of more mobile AI.

 

Organization of Goat Farming sector and Development of Agripreneurship The Entrepreneurship in the Goat farming can be increased by several folds through different Livestock Farmers Groups/Breeder‟s Association suggested to be in line with ATMA farmer groups with 20 farmers in each group. Also, one of the main goal of Goat production is to increase the export of Chevon. To tap the international Markets, we need to keep the Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary requirements of the country, wherein “traceability “of the animal product is mandatory. So, these commodity based/farming based groups will help for the co-ordination of tagging and other identification procedures. These groups will also help for the coordination of the marketing and value addition of the products as well as the animals.

1. Encouragement to form 17725 Livestock Farmers Groups/Breeder‟s Association over 5 years.
2. More leverage to be given to funding of entrepreneurs through Entrepreneurship Development and Employment Generation component of the National Livestock Mission. Suggested Action Plan Under the National Livestock Mission, sub-mission on skill development, technology transfer and extension

Component

(I) – IEC Support for Livestock Extension Component (III)-Livestock Farmers Groups/Breeder‟s Association.

Reference-On Request