Small ruminants have become progressively more important in rural households. This is due to farmers recognizing that small ruminants provide alternative opportunities to increase small farm income opportunities. Shared by Ms. Nanhi Bai from Ratanpur village of Sagar district. 

Goat is one of the important livestock of small, marginal and landless rural farmers and considered as their source of alternative income and livelihood. Due to their survival ability under extreme climate conditions and minimum management, this can assure a good income during the stress period to the small farm families with almost no input cost. small ruminants like Goat and Sheep are important assets and sources of income for smallholder whereas, women are more likely to be the owners of small ruminants while men tend to own large livestock.

Smallholder Adaptive Farming and Biodiversity Network (SAFBIN) in collaboration with the department of animal husbandry and its implementing partners (MVSS & JDSSS) is now mulling a comprehensive program under which the rearing of goat has been promoted. One of the key understanding of these provision of small ruminants is to add an additional farm component to make more diverse and resilient small farms.

Small ruminant farming contributes significantly to the national per capita income. It has generated regular income for small and marginal farmers and widely considered to be a safety net for tenant farmers. Despite providing regular source of income, small ruminant is also a rich source of nutrition in the form of meat, egg, milk and milk-based products. Moreover, small ruminants like goat, sheep and poultry is an additional alternative source of income while ensuring nutritional security among small and marginal farm families in rural areas.

 “I have benefited greatly from the training program on goat rearing. The much-needed training has improved my knowledge on vaccination and care management of Goat,” shared by Ms. Puja from Ghota village of Mandla district.

Scientific training for goat farming inclusive of identification of breed, vaccination and care management was facilitated by the department of animal husbandry to all the identified small marginal and landless farm beneficiaries. The beneficiaries were identified by the joint efforts of SHFC, District farmers forum representatives and local SAFBIN team members where a total of 172 goats were distributed to smallholder farmers in Sagar, Vidisha and Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh.

The COVID-19 spread disrupted the status quo activities in SAFBIN program. However, the team has made their mind and established a learning platform to make the smallholders educate on small scale goat rearing along with Covid-19 precaution measures. SAFBIN team has facilitated in-house training in coordination with local veterinary extension officers (VEO) of animal husbandry departments from respective administrative areas. Dr. Saurabh Sen, Dr. Mrida, Dr. Raju & Ms. Varsha were the key resource persons from the respective districts to orient the smallholders in the regions. To ensure their participation, SAFBIN team took adequate efforts to organise the training at the cluster level with maintaining all precautions and measures by following Covid-19 guideline strictly. The major outcomes of the training were (1) access to basic information like balance and economical feeding practices are the base of successful goat farming. (2) Enhanced knowledge about green fodder requirement, the protein content of concentrated mixture and requirement of concentrated mixture for lactating goats.

“Goat rearing is indeed being hailed as a gamechanger for our family, which has potential to snowball the overall vulnerable community,” Ms. Parvati Bai from Khanda village of Vidisha district says.

Finally, team SAFBIN team focused on the sustainability of goat rearing venture for smallholder farmers in the program areas. Transforming goat rearing venture into pyramid exchanging and creating synergy with the community which can energize growth and invigorate sustainable model.