Socio economic profile and constraints faced by goat keepers

A study was conducted in selected areas of Dahod and Kheda districts of middle Gujarat to study the socio-economic profile and constraints faced by goat keepers in goat rearing and the data was collected from randomly selected 240 goat keepers through personal interview with the help of pre-tested structured schedule. The present study revealed that majority of the goat keepers (64.58%) belonged to middle age having primary level of education. It is found that majority of the goat keepers belonged to other backward class (42.92%) followed by schedule caste (30.0%) and schedule tribe (27.08%). About 50.83 per cent of the goat keepers lived with up to 5 family members followed by more than 5 family members (49.17%). Majority of the goat keepers engaged in agriculture and labor work with goat rearing as subsidiary occupation for their livelihood. More than three fifth (62.0%) of the goat keepers had 11 to 20 years of experience in goat farming. Maximum goat keepers found marginal land holders and landless type. Majority of the goat keepers maintained 6-15 no. of goats and had annual income between Rs.25001-50000. Most of the goat keepers (92.50%) had no membership in any organization, having poor extension contact and very low level of mass media exposure. Major managemental constraints faced by the goat keepers in the study area were the non-availability of quality breeding buck (ranked I), farmers did not allow harvest fields for grazing (ranked II) and lack of technical guidance (ranked III). Whereas the non-availability of proper established goat market channel (ranked I), over-exploitation by middlemen or agents (ranked II), high transport cost (ranked III) due to far away market (ranked IV) were found the major marketing related constraints faced by goat keepers in goat rearing. Moreover, the predators’ problem during night time (ranked I), low literacy rate (ranked II), money crisis (ranked III) and theft losses during night time due to interior remote area (ranked IV) were found the major constraints related to socio-economic conditions perceived by the goat keepers in goat rearing.