Adoption of scientific management practices in goat farming by tribal goat farmers in west Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Goat rearing is a good source of capital storage, income, employment generation and house hold nutrition. Small ruminants are well integrated in the farming systems of the small and marginal farmers of India, who find in goats a vast potential for their socio-economic upliftment. Goats offer a strong opportunity to development agencies for suitable interventions including micro credit, extension, technical and marketing support especially to women, landless and small farmers. An attempt was made to document goat management practices followed by tribal communities in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. It was found that the majority of goat houses were located near or attached to the owners dwellings. The grazing of goats was looked mutually whereas some were hiring the labourers in the absence of regular grazier. Goats were maintained on grazing in harvested fields, along the roadside and on other uncultivated lands. They were not supplemented with concentrate mixture during critical stages of growth such as advance pregnancy and lactating period. Adoption of practices like timely vaccination, to control ecto-endo parasites, naval cord disinfection was poor and needs to improve a lot. To enhance the profitability and sustainability of this system in the long-run, the study has suggested that the flock-owners need to be educated about the scientific management practices like importance of timely vaccination and feeding of concentrate and feed supplements to the animals, control of ecto-endo parasites and naval cord disinfection.